Prescription charges are ‘regressive’ — IMO

The IMO has welcomed a European Commission report that finds prescription charges and co-payments by patients are “inequitable and inefficient”. IMO GPs warned that many patients were not taking the medicines they needed “due to financial constraints”. The report was published by a European Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health. Co-payments, including prescription charges, were a barrier to good health and a regressive policy that should be reversed, the IMO added. “As a means of raising revenue they [user charges] are both inequitable and inefficient in comparison to pooled funding. As a means of moderating demand,…