Gonzalez Lopez-Valcarcel

In Chapter 7, professor B. Gonzalez Lopez-Valcarcel of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria analyses the participation of the insuree in the payment of the price of the pharmaceutical. In spite of the widespread application of pharmaceutical co-payment in European health systems, the author observes that this mechanism does not appear to have been very effective in cost containment. Co-payments represent a way of making the user share the burden of the cost rather than an essential source of income for the public system. Theory and comparative experience of the system alike indicate that the indiscriminate application of co-payments is a source of inequalities, and that in any event its effects on consumption depend largely on prescriber incentives. For this reason the author recommends that co-payments should not be uniform for different population groups, and that they should not be applied in isolation, as their effectiveness is enhanced in combination with other instruments. 

B. Gonzalez Lopez-Valcarcel University professor, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria... 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ , , ]

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