Online Prescription Drugs - a Needed Pro-Consumer Shift
Synteza:
- Digitalization and the development of remote services in health care have been progressing for several years, and examples of such activities enable remote services (e.g. telemedicine), e-sick leaves, e-prescriptions, e-referrals or Online Patient Account.
- In 2018, the ability to buy prescription drugs for people with disabilities was introduced, and at the beginning of 2019, extension of such a way of sales to everyone was proposed, but later the proponents withdrew from the idea, ignoring the interests of consumers. It seems that behind the withdrawal of these changes, good for consumers, is part of the pharmacy community, which does not want to come to terms with the new reality in which e-commerce is becoming increasingly popular.
- Prescription drugs can be purchased online in some European Union countries, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, among others.
- Allowing prescription drugs to be purchased online should have been one of the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after the pandemic, this would have been an important convenience for consumers and treated patients.
Bureaucratic burden, regulations limiting competition, inflexible labour laws, complicated and time-consuming tax settlements with the tax authorities are the problems for years identified by entrepreneurs as the biggest barriers to business. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the government to introduce additional restrictions that often have a negative impact on business activity.
We believe that especially in this difficult period entrepreneurs need deregulation that will increase their flexibility in adapting to new economic conditions. Therefore, we are looking for solutions that will help to unlock the potential of entrepreneurs. In order to find regulations that are most harmful to entrepreneurs and show the benefits of deregulation for post-crisis growth, we have launched a portal www.deregulacja.pl.
Contact the author:
Marek Tatała, FOR Vice President, Economist
marek.tatala@for.org.pl
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