Opinion – Maria Inês Dolci: Flexible drug prices can increase elderly people’s inflation

The elderly with some income – usually a meager pension – have suffered greatly from high inflation. In interviews about the famine for television news, there are always older people saying that they had to reduce or cut the consumption of products such as beef, yogurt, coffee, soy oil, fruits and medicines. Elderly inflation is particularly cruel, and now a wing of the federal government advocates easing drug prices.

With the pandemic, our parents, grandparents, uncles, friends and older neighbors had to redouble care not to get sick and die from Covid-19. Many failed, unfortunately. They stayed at home, used a mask and gel alcohol, started the lines for vaccination.

Still, some of them were at the mercy of relatives or younger acquaintances who, out of necessity or not, continued to circulate outside the home and brought the virus to them.

The Elderly Statute is one of the good Brazilian laws, such as the CDC (Consumer Defense Code), the Marco Civil da Internet, the LGPD (General Data Protection Law) and the Over-indebtedness Law. It would, however, have to rely on a service and protection network, which is not the case widely, although there are exceptions to the rule.

Now, we are faced with an anachronistic and irrational invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which, in addition to the human tragedy in the region, is beginning to negatively influence the economy, with an increase in the price of a barrel of oil, grains and fertilizers.

Life, therefore, will become more difficult for everyone, especially for those who were already struggling to survive with dignity. Those who propose free-for-all in drug prices probably don’t have financial concerns. The retiree, however, with a series of chronic diseases controlled by treatment, sees an even more difficult and threatening horizon.

Fortunately, there are some programs such as Farmácia Popular, which offers subsidized medicines for some of the main diseases, in its own network and in partner stores. Other programs are statewide –such as Dose Certa, in São Paulo– and municipal, in capitals and cities in the interior of Brazil.

Some companies, class entities and health plans also offer agreements with pharmacies for medication discounts.

But, of course, these programs do not cover the wide range of medications that older people use.

While insanity sends tanks and armies to the second largest European country by extension, with thousands of years of history and cultural tradition, the world economy, which has already suffered from the blows of the long pandemic of coronavirus, has tough challenges not to fall to its knees. .

In this context, the almost 30 million Brazilians (perhaps much more!) below the poverty line know that it will be more difficult to eat the minimum necessary, while cooking gas will continue to become more expensive, and take care of health.

These citizens need official support, which will certainly not come from the market, shaken by the consequences of the pandemic. More expensive drugs, in the coming months, would threaten many lives.