Gov’t offers medication discounts to pensioners, people with disabilities

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced that pensioners and people with disabilities will enjoy 50 to 80 per cent discounts for chronic disease medications.

Bakhtadze vowed that the Georgian government aims to take further steps to ease the public’s medication-related expenses.

 In 2013, the Georgian government launched an unprecedented healthcare reform and introduced a universal healthcare programme enabling all citizens to receive medical services previously unavailable to them because of financial barriers.

In 2017, we started the second phase involving a 50 per cent discount on 23 different medications for the most widespread chronic diseases. Discounts on some drugs were raised as high as 80 per cent,” Bakhtadze said.

He stated that since September 3, discounts have been available for citizens of retirement age and persons with limited abilities.

As for socially vulnerable citizens, medications have been available, mostly for a symbolic price, for over a year. Besides these groups, the government made a decision to provide a 50 per cent discount on diabetes medications for the entire population, regardless of age or social status. Notably, the high quality of all medications under this program have been confirmed by the World Health Organization," Bakhtadze said.

Bakhtadze stated that the program continues to expand and, in the near future, it will include more medications and beneficiaries.