Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  I would say that these drugs are a challenge. In the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, we haven't said no to a pharmaceutical for rare diseases except once in the last five to seven years. Many of these drugs are in-patient pharmaceuticals. That means that the TLV is not really res

Health committee  In Sweden there is, and there is a social security system that allows grants for these patients. Often it's more than just the pharmaceutical copayment that they need help with, so that is part of it.

Health committee  On a general level, I think that is fair to say, but, of course, there are situations in which people tend to get into problems anyway. But on a general plane, I would say yes.

Health committee  Yes, there are. The question is if there are enough and if they are targeting the right issues in time. Of course, there are discussions and preparations. When it comes to the pharmaceutical benefit scheme, I would not say that we do anything differently than we would have done

Health committee  The threshold has been in place for quite some years. I don't have the figures right now, but I would say that for maybe 10 years the threshold did not change at all. Then a couple of years ago, the government decided to increase the threshold so that it's now around 230 euro per

Health committee  I would say that in Sweden we have had this copayment system for a very long time, so I don't think I can really answer what the motives were in the beginning. Of course, the thresholds have been changed over time, so it's higher now than it was in the beginning, naturally. I w

Health committee  I would say the Swedish system's threshold is fairly low, and very low compared to other countries'—

Health committee  For specific groups, there probably is a kind of access problem. As for how big it is and the best way to solve this kind of problem—whether is it specifically related to access to pharmaceuticals or a more general problem—I would say that it's a political question. The reforms t

Health committee  I really beg your pardon, but I need to understand better what—

Health committee  It's the TLV, which is an independent agency, that makes the decisions, and our decision-making is based on legislation and the Act on Pharmaceutical Benefits, and, of course, I am appointed by the government, but I'm not political. That's more or less the Swedish system for a ma

Health committee  There are a number of patients at this point who for economic reasons do not get their medicines, and the government has made some reforms targeted to certain patient groups, for example, contraceptives for young women. A recent example is all the pharmaceuticals within the pharm

Health committee  In the Swedish system, all doctors are working for the county councils. There are no doctors who are totally private. There is thus a whole system that links one to another when it comes to choice and access. I would say that in the few situations we experience in which we haven

Health committee  You mean that if the volume is higher, the prices are low? Well, not specifically, but, of course, the health technology assessment is based on a model in which a larger patient population often gives a larger value. In that sense, the price should be lower. But in our decision-m

Health committee  Yes, I would say it is.