The Ministry of Health has added 83 drugs to the "medicine basket," the long list of drugs approved for prescription at significantly discounted prices to Israelis under the national healthcare system. Over 400 drugs were considered for addition to the "medicine basket" this year.
The new additions, which will come into effect in January of 2009, will cost an estimated NIS 415 million a year. Approximately 340,000 Israelis are expected to benefit directly from the sharply decreased costs of drugs that, up until now, they were purchasing at full price.
The approval committee in charge of selecting the drugs made efforts to include medications for a variety of illnesses, and for patients of all ages.
Among the drugs approved in the latest round of additions are Erbitux, a drug used to treat bowel cancer, Faslodex, used to treat breast cancer, Novorapid, an insulin treatment, and Revataz and Isentress, HIV treatments. Asthma inhalers, eye infection antibiotics, anticoagulation drugs, genetic diagnostics for women, and medical foods for ill children were also among the newly selected medicines.
Despite the widespread positive implications expected for national health as a result of the new inclusions, the head of the approval committee, Professor Menachem Fainaru, apologized to all those who currently utilize drugs that were not included in the medicine basket this year.
The cabinet is expected to unanimously approve the additions to the health services basket, since the extra cost was already discussed during the budget talks last year. Minister of Health Yaakov Ben-Yezri welcomed the additions and noted that the health services basket's cost had increased by NIS 1.5 billion since 2006, at a current annual cost of NIS 25 billion.