Right to health and access to life-saving medicines: legal framework for state reimbursement of medicines

Abstract

With the rapid development of the medical and pharmaceutical fields, it has become easier to diagnose and treat deadly illnesses, such as cancer. However, many patients struggle to receive prescribed treatment due to accessibility and affordability issues. These challenges are addressed by the system of state reimbursement of medicines that fully or partially compensates for medicine purchase expenses for the patients in need. The legal framework of Latvia offers both automatic reimbursement depending on the diagnosis and individual compensation upon a case-by-case assessment when the ordinary procedure fails. Thus, the right to health is operationalised into a working social welfare and health care system. Nevertheless, several concerns arise when the patients’ circumstances do not correspond with those prescribed by law, or the necessary out-of-pocket payments exceed the affordability threshold, even with the awarded state assistance.