The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday a reform of the pharmaceutical co-payment system to make it more proportional to income. The idea is to incorporate a cap on the contribution of patients earning less than 35,000 euros per year, who today have no monthly limit on the expense of medicines financed by Social Security. In fact, the reform – which must first go through Congress – introduces four new contribution brackets and progressive monthly caps to benefit middle and low incomes, while aiming to prevent the abandonment of treatments for economic reasons. The Ministry of Health calculates that the savings for families will be around 265 million euros, although for the moment there is no date for the implementation of the new model.

Pharmacies are starting to carry out antigen tests supervised by health professionals, which, unlike the tests that now everyone can do at home, will be official and the results will be recorded in the medical record of La Meva Salut. Until now, the result in an antigen test was only recorded in the health system if it had been done by health professionals in a primary healthcare centre, for instance, or in an official mass screening or in any of the accredited private centers. Pharmacies are now joining in, although in their case the result will not used to obtain the EU Covid Certificate that allows travel between states for people who have not been vaccinated or are not yet carrying the full vaccination regimen. The pharmacies' tests will be valid for all activities where an accredited negative antigen test is required.