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Stakeholders discussed the role of an important, but often overlooked key stakeholder in
healthcare financing–the pharmaceutical industry. Drug costs have a significant contribution
to healthcare expenditures, yet massive discrepancies in prices appear between different
forms of drug purchases: between generic and patented drugs, and newly researched and
older drugs. HA utilises practices of bulk purchase to acquire medications at lower costs, but
such mechanisms are generally unavailable for private service providers. Given the important
role played by pharmaceuticals, various stakeholders, especially those offering private
services, emphasised the importance of involving the pharmaceutical industry
in health financing discussions.

Stakeholders’ voices

When we (different stakeholders collectively) talk about health
financing and related issues, the Government, HA, and others
always intentionally or unintentionally leave out the pharmaceuticals.
Private service provider

All drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
are expensive because of the extensive research involved. For
diabetic and hypertensive drugs, there should be negotiations
of prices with the pharmaceuticals.
Private service provider

Theme 4. Investing in strategic purchasing as a health financing
lever

Subtheme 4.1 – Successful strategic purchasing requires comprehensive policy and
regulation. Stakeholders showed a supportive attitude towards PPPs and the
idea of applying strategic purchasing to fill in service gaps in the public
sector, such as the long wait-times for ophthalmologists or accessibility issues of
healthcare services during a public health crisis. In particular, the UK was quoted for
drastically shortening the waiting list for specific procedures through leveraging PPPs.

Stakeholders’ voices

[The optometrists and ophthalmologists] will find a lot of visual acuity
problems like presbyopia, myopia [in voucher users], which require [these
patients to wear] glasses. Now if you (the Government) don’t provide the
voucher for the population, they won’t go because all these treatments are
costly to them, especially if they have not purchased any insurance. If you give
it (the subsidy), at least they get checked. That’s why I think it (the Scheme) is
really good, and it really meets an unmet need, particularly for vision care.

Academic

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