Here's your medication - and this is how much it costs the health system

Ramona Fuentes, 78, takes a hodgepodge of pills every day. A nurse at her primary care center in Salt, Girona, makes little drawings for her so she will know how and when to take each of the treatments for hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, anxiety and more. A sun, for instance, means she has to take the pill in the morning, while a moon means night.

Ramona cannot read or write, and her husband Manuel Martínez, 81, is barely literate. "Your medication costs 2,159 euros a year. I'm only telling you so you'll know," says the nurse at the end of the visit. Ramona does not pay a cent of that, because she is a pensioner.

Starting this week, every patient who walks in for an appointment at a primary care center run by the Catalan Health Institute in Girona province and gets a prescription (65 percent of patients in the province) will immediately know how much their medication is worth, and how much - or little - they will have to personally pay.

The goal is "for pharmaceutical spending to be as efficient as possible"

"Think it over"

"The goal is to raise awareness," said the head of the pharmaceutical affairs department of Girona's health services, Anna Maria Roig, who compares it with home economics. "Knowing how much things cost will help make better use of them." The ultimate goal is "for pharmaceutical spending to be as efficient as possible."

"Older people will continue to behave as they have until now, and take home a medication even if they don't need it. But the rest of us, especially at times like these, will think it over," says Carmen Cantos, a 47-year-old hairdresser who went to the doctor's with a cold, and was prescribed 24 capsules and two inhalers (total cost: 22.63 euros). The practice of disclosing the price of medication is to be extended throughout Catalonia. From March 1, it will be implemented at 12 health centers in the Barcelona neighborhoods of Eixample, Gràcia and Horta-Guinardó.

"This is not a bill; it's a health instrument with additional information about the cost of the treatment," says the general practitioner Rafael Cubí, who works in Salt. "We seek to raise awareness and offer guidance regarding the costs of maintaining our health system." This week, Cubí renewed the prescription for Sofía Leal, 48, who has a heart condition. A year's worth of treatment will cost 923.12 euros, of which she will pay 351.75 euros.