# Kidney transplant - cost of drugs



## jaxxxonn (Jan 6, 2016)

Hello, I am hoping someone on this forum can help. I am trying to find out the cost of the drugs a transplant patient has to take to prevent rejection. We are planning to move to spain by the end of the year after selling our house. The one stumbling block at the moment is trying to find out what my prescription drugs are going to cost me. Only someone who has had a transplant may be able to help, I take one called prograf which i know is expensive. All in all i take 11 different ones daily. Anybody who has had or knows some expat who has had a transplant and has to get their medication from a farmacia in please get in touch if you know.

thanks


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

jaxxxonn said:


> Hello, I am hoping someone on this forum can help. I am trying to find out the cost of the drugs a transplant patient has to take to prevent rejection. We are planning to move to spain by the end of the year after selling our house. The one stumbling block at the moment is trying to find out what my prescription drugs are going to cost me. Only someone who has had a transplant may be able to help, I take one called prograf which i know is expensive. All in all i take 11 different ones daily. Anybody who has had or knows some expat who has had a transplant and has to get their medication from a farmacia in please get in touch if you know.
> 
> thanks


I have no experience of buying such medication, but if you do a Google search for precio de xxxx (name of medication) espana, you will be able to find out.

Here, for example, are the prices for the different brands and strengths of Prograf (look at the pvp column)


http://www.murciasalud.es/gftb.php?...ordenar&opt=ficha1&cod=L04AD02&tabla_visado=1


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Perhaps you already know about prescription charges in Spain, but if not you may find this useful.

New co-payment scheme for Spanish medical prescriptions | Iberosphere | Spain News and Portugal News - Information and Analysis

Of course, these charges only apply to those who are registered in the state health system (if anyone is paying to access the state system via the Convenio Especial, they have to pay the full cost of the medication).


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

It also might be worth mentioning that for the first year you would have to have private health insurance and it is unlikely that they would cover you for implications arising from your transplant. Secondly the convenio especial (the Spanish health service) may not be available where you want to live and if it is, there is a cost and also a cost for prescriptions. The good news is if you are accepted that they cover pre existing conditions.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> It also might be worth mentioning that for the first year you would have to have private health insurance and it is unlikely that they would cover you for implications arising from your transplant. Secondly the convenio especial (the Spanish health service) may not be available where you want to live and if it is, there is a cost and also a cost for prescriptions. The good news is if you are accepted that they cover pre existing conditions.


It depends, we don't know if the OP (or his/her spouse) is a UK state pensioner or not. If at least one of them is, then they can of course get an S1 form and use that to register with the INSS and subsequently with their local health centre, which means that the UK Government would pay for their healthcare and they would not need private health insurance for their first year.

Just to clarify, the Convenio Especial can only be accessed after you have been officially resident in Spain for at least one year. It currently costs €60 per person per month for those aged under 65 and €157 per person per month for those aged 65 or over. It does not cover medication costs so anyone choosing that option would have to pay 100% of the cost of their medication (as they would with almost all private insurers) which would probably be very expensive indeed for the OP.


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

'_.....which means that the UK Government would pay for their healthcare'_ A little pedantic maybe but the UK government would not pay for the healthcare, it would only pay up to €2,966.88 which it does for for every registered state pensioner in Spain, who holds an S1 form. I suspect that this wouldn't cover the costs of the poster.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> '_.....which means that the UK Government would pay for their healthcare'_ A little pedantic maybe but the UK government would not pay for the healthcare, it would only pay up to €2,966.88 which it does for for every registered state pensioner in Spain, who holds an S1 form. I suspect that this wouldn't cover the costs of the poster.


Pensioners whose healthcare costs more than that in any one year don't get billed for the shortfall. The Spanish health service has to cover that as part of the reciprocal agreement. I guess it is supposed to average out by some people needing little or no treatment, as my OH has not used the health service at all in the two years since he became a pensioner.

The UK Government don't pay "up to" anything. They pay the same set amount for every pensioner and their dependants who have an S1 form. This is the text of an email response from the Department of Health in reply to a query about this matter.

"Thank you for your email of 4 August about payments made by the UK to Spain , under European Union (EU) social security regulations. I have been asked to reply.

The regulations, which also apply in Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway and Switzerland , govern the payment and calculation of costs relating to healthcare provided to another countries’ citizens. The UK government’s payments to Spain , to cover the cost of UK pensioners living in Spain , are calculated using an average of what it costs Spain to provide healthcare to its ‘insured’ residents. These costs are subject to scrutiny and approval by the European Commission and all member states. Once approved, the European Commission then arrange for each Member State ’s figures to be published in the official journal of the EU. This enables other Member States to calculate their payments to the Member State concerned.

The latest published figure for Spain ’s average costs, for the calendar year 2008, is 3,491.45 Euros. This is the figure used to calculate payments to Spain by all other Member States for their state pensioners resident there in that year.

In addition, the regulations also allow Member States to elect to use the actual cost of treatment provided rather than the average cost, as explained above. The UK applies a similar system to that used by Spain ; the most recently published UK average cost figure is £3,368.

Yours sincerely,

(SNIP)
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health"


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> Pensioners whose healthcare costs more than that in any one year don't get billed for the shortfall. The Spanish health service has to cover that as part of the reciprocal agreement. I guess it is supposed to average out by some people needing little or no treatment, as my OH has not used the health service at all in the two years since he became a pensioner.
> 
> The UK Government don't pay "up to" anything. They pay the same set amount for every pensioner and their dependants who have an S1 form.


Precisely. However much is paid by each country which issues S1s, to the others, the S1 holder won't be billed if their treatment costs more than that. Neither will the issuing country be sent an extra bill.


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

It's probably becoming an academic exercise now but for accuracy I was quoting from a letter from the UK Government which is a little more up to date that 2008 which states:
The UK pays the Spanish Government an annual total of €2,966.88 for every registered state pensioner in Spain, who holds an S1 form. It also pays Spain for every treatment given via the European Health Insurance Card.

DWP/DH Compliance Team May 2016

Interesting to see how the costs have gone down.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Calas felices said:


> It's probably becoming an academic exercise now but for accuracy I was quoting from a letter from the UK Government which is a little more up to date that 2008 which states:
> The UK pays the Spanish Government an annual total of €2,966.88 for every registered state pensioner in Spain, who holds an S1 form. It also pays Spain for every treatment given via the European Health Insurance Card.
> 
> DWP/DH Compliance Team May 2016
> ...


Whatever the figure is, the main point is that this figure is meant to cover the average cost of a pensioner in Spain.

Some will cost Spain more and others less. 

The individual is NOT expected to pay any shortfall nor do they expect to get a rebate!


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> It's probably becoming an academic exercise now but for accuracy I was quoting from a letter from the UK Government which is a little more up to date that 2008 which states:
> The UK pays the Spanish Government an annual total of €2,966.88 for every registered state pensioner in Spain, who holds an S1 form. It also pays Spain for every treatment given via the European Health Insurance Card.
> 
> DWP/DH Compliance Team May 2016
> ...


Seems to be a bargain for the UK Government, doesn't it?

Thank you for the up to date information, I had been wondering where that figure came from.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I was wondering, out of interest, what the average cost of healthcare per pensioner is in the UK, but can't find anything more recent than this, which says that in 2007/2008 the Department of Health said the average cost of providing healthcare services to retired households was 5,200 pounds. I wonder what that figure is now? 

The ageing population: key issues for the 2010 Parliament - UK Parliament


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

I suspect that since treatment is free at the point of treatment there are few figures available to assess this as costs can vary so much and presumably any averages would have to be regional. I did find this though from a recent article (two days ago) 
British expats can also claim to pay their own way in Europe, as the UK paid£674 million in 2014-2015 to other European countries for the treatment of UK nationals. However, the UK received just £49 million from other European nations in the same year to treat those from other countries residing in the UK.

Looks like a brexit would save an additional £620 million apart from the £50 Million that the UK shells out to children of other UK citizens , the top ups of income credit to low wage workers who are here (estimated to be over 1 billion), the costs of all the seemingly useless MEPs and the major net cost of about 8 billion. Who's getting a good deal now? 😀


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> I suspect that since treatment is free at the point of treatment there are few figures available to assess this as costs can vary so much and presumably any averages would have to be regional. I did find this though from a recent article (two days ago)
> British expats can also claim to pay their own way in Europe, as the UK paid£674 million in 2014-2015 to other European countries for the treatment of UK nationals. However, the UK received just £49 million from other European nations in the same year to treat those from other countries residing in the UK.
> 
> Looks like a brexit would save an additional £620 million apart from the £50 Million that the UK shells out to children of other UK citizens , the top ups of income credit to low wage workers who are here (estimated to be over 1 billion), the costs of all the seemingly useless MEPs and the major net cost of about 8 billion. Who's getting a good deal now? 😀


That assumes that in the event of a Brexit, the UK Government would indeed stop paying for the healthcare of its nationals in other EU countries (pensioners via S1s and tourists via the EHIC) - something that the Leave campaigners and their supporters have been at pains to assure us would be unlikely to happen. Perhaps they'd better start being honest with us.

One reason why the UK brings in so little from other European countries for the treatment of their citizens is because the NHS is so inefficient at collecting it.


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

It's all down to the humanity of the service and the staff I suppose. Fortunately the UK does not hold it's hand out for the credit card or EHIC card before starting treatment. There appears to be a healthy black market in such cards in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Rumania so it would probably be pointless.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> It's all down to the humanity of the service and the staff I suppose. Fortunately the UK does not hold it's hand out for the credit card or EHIC card before starting treatment. T


If they don't do that then they can hardly complain that they collect so little from other countries who appear to have more sense.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Maybe they don't ask for a credit card before starting treatment - but it didn't stop them sending me a bill for 10,000 GBP when my late husband spent 36 hours in hospital there before he died.

Insurance paid for it - eventually. He could have, & should have, had a TSE - but he hadn't sorted it out, so they sent me the bill.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Calas felices said:


> It's all down to the humanity of the service and the staff I suppose. Fortunately the UK does not hold it's hand out for the credit card or EHIC card before starting treatment. There appears to be a healthy black market in such cards in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Rumania so it would probably be pointless.


Humanity of the staff?
When has the UK ever operated its hospital around the humanity of the staff?
It's a business


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