Medicine Prices Spain

bodanco

Ran out of BP. Medicine in Spain here is what I paid for One months supply

Ramilo 5mg €4.18
Lipitor 10mg €4.61
Istin 10mg €3.01

How does this compare with Ireland prices ?

celticcrash

I am doing the calculations, its going to take a while.
f*ck it, I will pass it on to my accountant as its quiet large.

nino1

The Spanish government contributes 40% of the cost of drugs.
Great for cheap drugs like listed above, not great if your drugs are very expensive as there is no cut off at €144 like there is here.

sandin

nino1 wrote: »

The Spanish government contributes 40% of the cost of drugs.
Great for cheap drugs like listed above, not great if your drugs are very expensive as there is no cut off at €144 like there is here.

Other wst round - consumers in spain pay 40% and government pays 60%. Great for cheap drigs but hell if you need specialist drugs. If you need a drug costing 20k a year, it costs 8k in Spain, here you would pay a maximum of 125 a month for the same drug.

Which would you prefer?

webwayz

Where is the EU Single Market Rules when it comes to this.
I had a similar issue when in Italy a drug prescribed was a token price
When back in Dublin I needed a 2nd salvo of them, only to have to pay for the doctors visit, and then 3 times the price for the tablets.

faceman

Don't forget though, depending on the region of Spain, the pharmacy staff costs will be significantly less than that of Ireland. Less wages, less disposal income, prices cheaper etc

Scortho

sandin wrote: »

Other wst round - consumers in spain pay 40% and government pays 60%. Great for cheap drigs but hell if you need specialist drugs. If you need a drug costing 20k a year, it costs 8k in Spain, here you would pay a maximum of 125 a month for the same drug.

Which would you prefer?

If your drug is costing 20k a year here you most likely pay nothing as chances are its an lti or high tec.
That said the mark up plus dispensing fee that some pharmacists charge is ridiculous. However they are private companies and consumers are allowed shop around.

Ciarok

There are several reasons why private prescription charges are high in Ireland:

Most the scripts are on medical cards or other payment schemes so no-one cares about the price.

Wholesale prices of medicines in Ireland are very high by international standards (it is in the pharmaceutical companies' interest to keep them high as prices in other countries are partly set with reference to the Irish price).

There is a dispensing fee per item.

And a substantial mark-up - about 50%, much higher than the mark-up for identical GMS (Medical Card) prescriptions.

There is no competition between pharmacists - its an effective cartel like GPs.

Recently Tesco has opened a few pharmacies. My prescriptions (4 common medicines) are 25% cheaper per month at Tesco.

One wonders if there has been much change in pharmacy prices in the areas near these new pharmacies.

nino1

Ciarok wrote: »

There are several reasons why private prescription charges are high in Ireland:

Your opening line made me think you were going to provide these reasons but you failed pretty miserably!

Ciarok wrote: »

Most the scripts are on medical cards or other payment schemes so no-one cares about the price.

not true, with the fall in the cost of drugs most scripts are private and either way the other schemes have no affect on the cost of a private script

Ciarok wrote: »

There is a dispensing fee per item.

the dispensing fee in most places is €3.50 which for the higher prices drug you are talking about is not a significant percentage of the price.

Ciarok wrote: »

There is no competition between pharmacists - its an effective cartel like GPs.

many pharmacies charge different prices, both independents and chains, you even quote tesco as charging cheaper! is that not competition?!

Amouar

I still don't understand why the prices are that high in Ireland, it's sometimes more than 300% of the price in other countries.
Let's take Avamys spray as an example: I bought it in Dublin for over 23€ . I went to Turkey and found it for a 7€. Checked the price in France and it's about 8 € . I don't think that there is anything that would justify the 15 € increase compared to other countries??

Fighting Irish

I hear it#s even cheaper in Cambodia

Amouar

Fighting Irish wrote: »

I hear it#s even cheaper in Cambodia

Let's just look at our neighbours, no need to go that far
it's 7 pounds in the UK http://www.totalpharmacy.co.uk/avamys-nasal-spray-dose-275mcg-p-2664.html
In france and I suspect other EU countries aswell, it's about 8€

rubadub

Amouar wrote: »

I still don't understand why the prices are that high in Ireland, it's sometimes more than 300% of the price in other countries.
Let's take Avamys spray as an example: I bought it in Dublin for over 23€ . I went to Turkey and found it for a 7€. Checked the price in France and it's about 8 € . I don't think that there is anything that would justify the 15 € increase compared to other countries??

Pharmacy Owner -How can you justify setting the prices so high in my shop?
Pharmacy Manager -That customer Amouar is still willing to pay it.
Pharmacy Owner -That's great, no need to drop them so, keep up the good work.

sandin

Amouar wrote: »

I still don't understand why the prices are that high in Ireland, it's sometimes more than 300% of the price in other countries.
Let's take Avamys spray as an example: I bought it in Dublin for over 23€ . I went to Turkey and found it for a 7€. Checked the price in France and it's about 8 € . I don't think that there is anything that would justify the 15 € increase compared to other countries??

Check the size as I used avamys and couldn't see it sny better priced. There was a half size bottle for about €12

Ireland about €23
Uk £19.80
New Zealand $38.99
Usa $32.99
France unless you are on a medical card type plan, €22.50

If you are buying in turkey for €7 its probably fake.

Amouar

sandin wrote: »

Check the size as I used avamys and couldn't see it sny better priced. There was a half size bottle for about €12

Ireland about €23
Uk £19.80
New Zealand $38.99
Usa $32.99
France unless you are on a medical card type plan, €22.50

If you are buying in turkey for €7 its probably fake.

I'm not sure where you got these prices but they're not correct, at least for France and UK.
France: 8.73€ public price with no medical plan. http://sante-az.aufeminin.com/w/sante/m3832244/medicaments/avamys.html . also a family member lives there and she buys it for her son with same price.
UK: check my previous post, it's for less than 9£
And yes both are the same size with 120 sprays.
As for turkey, it's also the same size and absolutely not a fake as it's sold in pharmacies and made by GSK (same as the one in Ireland) with full contact details etc.

dzer2

Few years ago we were on holiday in Spain with the kids the missus had to get stuff from chemist she said it was half the price of the same gear back home. Any time we had to use the doctors here after that we photocopied the prescription. The next time we went the OH brought the photocopied prescriptions with her and stocked up. The missus reckons we saved the price of the flights to Spain afterwards when ever the doctor gave her a prescription we looked at our stock and used from that instead of having to buy at the chemist.

Corkbah

yet another - we must be ripped off because stuff is more expensive here.

OP - there are loads of factors which come into place - one of them being the profit margin the pharmacists want/need* to make.

if you feel you are ripped off why not visit your doctor (approx €50), get your script, book a flight and get your script filled ...repeat as desired !! (I'm sure in less than a year you will be willing to pay Irish pharmacy prices)

* = the reason for want/need is that they want to make a profit but also have loads of overhead costs which are probably higher than other countries.

We have stocked up ourselves while on our travels, its not intentional but if you can save money while on holidays - buy the stuff....but its a waste of time travelling just to fill a script.

sandin

dzer2 wrote: »

Few years ago we were on holiday in Spain with the kids the missus had to get stuff from chemist she said it was half the price of the same gear back home. Any time we had to use the doctors here after that we photocopied the prescription. The next time we went the OH brought the photocopied prescriptions with her and stocked up. The missus reckons we saved the price of the flights to Spain afterwards when ever the doctor gave her a prescription we looked at our stock and used from that instead of having to buy at the chemist.

Not possible as the absolute max a family can pay on medicines in a month is €144 after that every medicine that month is refunded.

Spain don't have that deal - they subsidise by 60% for everyone and everything. Great if you are a middle income earner on low price medicine but crap if you are on low income (1.50 charge in Ireland) and dreadful if you unfortunately need high price medicine.

keithclancy

Amouar wrote: »

Let's just look at our neighbours, no need to go that far
it's 7 pounds in the UK http://www.totalpharmacy.co.uk/avamys-nasal-spray-dose-275mcg-p-2664.html
In france and I suspect other EU countries aswell, it's about 8€

€ 7,87 here in the Netherlands.
Source: http://www.medicijnkosten.nl/

Although if your happy to have Mandatory Private Health Insurance at 125 euros per month (excluding dental and even when you are unemployed) be my guest :pac: add on top of that your paying an effective tax rate of pretty much 40 - 47 % its quite a lot.

Don't get me started on Germany, basically you pay 15.5% of your Gross Salary for your Health Insurance up to a cap of 47,250 (i.e. EUR 3,937.50 a month), but the tax is a bit lower than the Netherlands.

Every single Irish person I know that came to the Netherlands is shocked at the taxes and the cost of Health Insurance (and that its mandatory) so much so that some of them 'avoided' registering with the City Hall and were royally peeed off when they got a back dated bill for health insurance from the day they started working.

Just my 2 cents.

dzer2

sandin wrote: »

Not possible as the absolute max a family can pay on medicines in a month is €144 after that every medicine that month is refunded.

Spain don't have that deal - they subsidise by 60% for everyone and everything. Great if you are a middle income earner on low price medicine but crap if you are on low income (1.50 charge in Ireland) and dreadful if you unfortunately need high price medicine.

6 return flights to Palma 42 euro each = 252 euro

12 x 144= 1728 I would say its fairly possible alright

A lot of people around here supporting rip off Ireland

double GG

dzer2 wrote: »

6 return flights to Palma 42 euro each = 252 euro

12 x 144= 1728 I would say its fairly possible alright

A lot of people around here supporting rip off Ireland

Without even looking, a summer flight to Palma would be at least triple or quadruple that price.

phanley

Not sure on what medicine it was but my father normally pays €29 or so for medication he's on, thats for 9 tablets. He got a box of 50 in Spain same brand etc. for €9.

MBSnr

dzer2 wrote: »

A lot of people around here supporting rip off Ireland

Must all be pharmacists posting....:D

The fact that different chemists are dispensing the same drugs at massively varying prices (news the other day) just goes to show that we are being ripped off. Cost price of one of my wife's medicines is 50 Euro (FACT). It is sold over the counter at over 85 Euro. Take off the dispensing fee, it's still a markup of 60%. The doctor will actually prescribe 2 x in the month so that she can get them for 144 Euro on the drugs payment scheme. Guess what? Not one of the local pharmacies will give her two per month.

Now I stand to be corrected but could that be because they'd only get the cost price from the Gov on the difference over 144 Euro? You wonder why people 'imagine' they're being ripped off.

dzer2

double GG wrote: »

Without even looking, a summer flight to Palma would be at least triple or quadruple that price.

Kids are off the first week in may thats the price we paid 4 weeks ago.

keithclancy

dzer2 wrote: »

A lot of people around here supporting rip off Ireland

Not really, I live in the Netherlands and work in Germany.

Border hopping to save a bit of money is quite common, however saying X country is a rip off makes no sense. There are positives and negatives all over the place.

But generally speaking, items are a price the market can bear.

For example a lot of Germans travel to the Netherlands to buy coffee since its half the price.
Or the Dutch travel to Germany to get dental care (not necessarily because its cheaper, but because its sometimes bloody hard to get a dentist)

Its a free market and your free to do what you want, however saying its a ripoff makes no sense, since if you lived in the country you would pay for it some other way.

Besides that, Spains healthcare spending is out of control and unsustainable and has been for some time.

MBSnr

keithclancy wrote: »

Not really, I live in the Netherlands and work in Germany.

Border hopping to save a bit of money is quite common, however saying X country is a rip off makes no sense. There are positives and negatives all over the place.

But generally speaking, items are a price the market can bear.

For example a lot of Germans travel to the Netherlands to buy coffee since its half the price.
Or the Dutch travel to Germany to get dental care (not necessarily because its cheaper, but because its sometimes bloody hard to get a dentist)

Its a free market and your free to do what you want, however saying its a ripoff makes no sense, since if you lived in the country you would pay for it some other way.

Besides that, Spains healthcare spending is out of control and unsustainable and has been for some time.

So you don't live or work here but you say it's not a rip off?

Also you're not exactly comparing like with like. Living in the NL means you are only a max 2.5 hrs from the German or Belgium border..... West Cork to the NI border (the only border on the island mind) is over 5 hrs....

So we're a captive market that cannot source/buy products from another EU country easily. Yes I agree with you that's it's a free market but we are not free to do what we want as both restrictive legal but unfair Gov. policies (ie VRT) and our geography mostly stop us. This is why the prices are high. Medicines are a need to many, not a luxury - the market price is artificially high due to this, and that's why I maintain it's a rip off here.

sandin

keithclancy wrote: »

€ 7,87 here in the Netherlands.
Source: http://www.medicijnkosten.nl/

.

comparing like with like its 23.17 in netherlands
FLIXOTIDE 50MCG/DO SPBS 120 DO + VOLUM
FLUTICASON
AEROSOL
50UG/DO 120DO VOLUM
GLAXOSMITHKLINE B.V.
€ 23,17

keithclancy

MBSnr wrote: »

So you don't live or work here but you say it's not a rip off?

Also you're not exactly comparing like with like. Living in the NL means you are only a max 2.5 hrs from the German or Belgium border..... West Cork to the NI border (the only border on the island mind) is over 5 hrs....

So we're a captive market that cannot source/buy products from another EU country easily. Yes I agree with you that's it's a free market but we are not free to do what we want as both restrictive legal but unfair Gov. policies (ie VRT) and our geography mostly stop us. This is why the prices are high. Medicines are a need to many, not a luxury - the market price is artificially high due to this, and that's why I maintain it's a rip off here.

Have lived and worked in Ireland for over 10 years.

Not really a captive market either since a flight from Ireland to the Continent is the same price if not usually cheaper than the ICE from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf.

Your VRT btw, the Dutch have an equivalent system called BPM:
*Belasting van personenauto's en motorrijwielen (bpm)*

Pretty much the same system that you cannot avoid as a Dutch Resident:
http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/cars/bpm/on_what_amount_is_the_bpm_calculated/on_what_amount_is_the_bpm_calculated

Besides, I know people in Cork that travel to Newry for shopping trips.
On the other side of your argument someone living in Berlin would have a 6 hour trip one way driving to the Netherlands, whereas someone living in Sligo only has a 1 hour trip to Enniskillen.

Or perhaps you want to compare purchasing Car Parts ?
Half the price in the UK compared to Germany, but its not possible to use them because they are not TUV approved.

Or how about having to pay 1 months rent as commission in the Netherlands and 2 months rent + Tax to rent an unfurnished apartment in Germany ?

Also renting unfurnished you have to pay 80 euros just for a credit check from SCHUFA.

Closed Markets you say.

Not to mention the Crazy roaming fees you can incur just driving down the A2 towards Maastricht if you forget to turn off roaming.

sandin wrote: »

comparing like with like its 23.17 in netherlands
FLIXOTIDE 50MCG/DO SPBS 120 DO + VOLUM
FLUTICASON
AEROSOL
50UG/DO 120DO VOLUM
GLAXOSMITHKLINE B.V.
€ 23,17

Wrong one, its:

AVAMYS NEUSSPRAY 27,5MCG/DO FLACON 120DOSES (AVAMYS NASALSPRAY 27,5MCG 120 DOSES)
Cost: € 7,97 (Cost with Insurance is Zero)

Same as the product that was posted:
http://www.totalpharmacy.co.uk/avamys-nasal-spray-dose-275mcg-p-2664.html

MBSnr

Your arguement may be very valid and indeed everyone ends up paying something, but I still maintain we pay more. The way I read it Ireland is the 5th most expensive country in Europe... The facts seem to indicate that *perhaps* we are getting ripped off.

Ireland 5th
NL 11th
Germany 14th
Spain 16th
UK 20th

EDIT: Actually 5th in the world...

keithclancy

MBSnr wrote: »

Your arguement may be very valid and indeed everyone ends up paying something, but I still maintain we pay more. The way I read it Ireland is the 5th most expensive country in Europe... The facts seem to indicate that *perhaps* we are getting ripped off.

Ireland 5th
NL 11th
Germany 14th
Spain 16th
UK 20th

EDIT: Actually 5th in the world...

I can't see where that references where that data came from, or for what period it covers.

AFAIK it was Dublin that was one of the most expensive cities in the World (which has gone down with deflation in 2009-2012)

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/inflation_dashboard/

My opinion is that in every country there are individual cases of ripoffs, but saying that something is a ripoff because of the country it's in doesn't make any sense.

If something seems cheap when you visit there, it can be for a number of reasons but usually its because it's what the local market is willing/able to pay for the item. When demand goes up the price goes up.

Or it can also mean its subsidized (e.g. Flowers are really cheap in the Netherlands, but only because the country subsidizes the hell out of it, hence there's an indirect cost on the Taxpayer)

Stuff might seem cheap to you if you visit here, but a person working in the country on the same wage as you has less money to spend in the first place.

MBSnr

I believe that data is live and certainly is no more than 6 months old

OK I can see we aren't going to quite agree on this. We both can continue to cite examples to backup our cases. I'm not implying that Ireland is the only place that has inflated prices or where items are for sale at rip off levels. Sure, I can see that every country has incidents of this - your examples are of course valid and I'm not saying that because Ireland is listed is being an expensive country it is a rip off every time. What I am saying is I generally think some of Ireland's prices are excessively higher (what I would constitute as a rip off) compared with the UK. Some hotel prices, restaurants and others are not.

But saying that, I still believe that we are charged an excessive amount of Euro markup and inflated shipping costs on a large proportion of the goods we can purchase. This is both in store and online buying from Irish online retailers. The amount of times I have seen an Irish online site charge an excessive postal rate is unreal - even for national delivery. I want an item for 5 Euro but they're charging me 8 Euro to ship it? I can buy it from Ebay UK cheaper, and often do. But this seems to have been always the case, as Ireland was expensive when the Punt/GBP were tied together before the Euro. I used to live in England and was surprised how much less I got for 10 Punts then 10 Pounds.

When the UK stores started to trade here en-mass 10 yrs ago, they used 66p to the Euro. During the boom years a large percentage of the population who earned massive amounts of money did not mind paying the inflated price - or that's what the media and our popular belief lead us to surmise. It then became the mindset and of course the UK retailers, plus the UK & Irish wholesellers used 66p (2/3rds markup) as the standard. The market could bear it after all, sure didn't we apparently ALL have the cash? However since late 2007 the exchange rate has changed from 66p up to ~82p now against the Euro. A number of UK stores, wholesellers and Irish retailers STILL use the 66p exchange rate. (I've plenty of examples). That in my mind is a continued rip off, even taking into consideration shipping and the 3% VAT difference.

Everyone rightly suggests we should be buying local, supporting the local shops but in these times why pay a large percentage more for an item when you can buy it elsewhere for much less?

So as I previously mentioned, I'm not saying that the whole country is a rip off, as some retailers have changed to use 75p/Euro. This is still high, but is slightly more bearable/understandable due to currency fluctuations and the high rental rates and transport costs. Although they can ship and sell the product in NI for the same price as Britain.... Perhaps we in the South subsidise the increased costs of selling the product in the North? Who knows?

I believe this historically stems from a few things. Years ago there was no option but to buy it locally or travel to NI, so you are correct to a certain degree in saying that it's related to what the market can bear - we couldn't shop around back then in the pre-internet age. Not much has changed for the older generation. My older relatives just go to the local shop and buy the item paying the full price, sometimes paying 30-40% more than the price I'd pay online. Are they are being ripped off here? Perhaps they'd think not as they have no other reference price. I'd say they were. But the market has changed, people have less money and do now compare and shop about. Certain retailers have adapted and changed but in other places were the item is a necessity (medicine) it continues on. You could say that's market forces. I'd say that we are still looked upon as a 'cash cow' by the medical/pharmaceutical companies.

So I'm drawing my rip off comparisons mostly from our nearest trading partner, where I see a large proportion of the items for sale here being cheaper in the UK.