Abstract

Background

The Colombian health care system has had a plan with limited benefits, but since 2012, 57 drugs have been added to this plan.

Objectives

The objective of this article was to describe the trends of utilization and costs of medications covered by the Agreement 029/2011 and compare them with those that were contained in the benefits plan.

Methods

This descriptive study involved a group of 3.8 million people affiliated with the Colombian health care system, in 110 cities from July 2011 until June 2013. The variables were new medications that were included, comparing them with homologous medications that were already in the plan, age, sex, dispensed quantities, and monthly billing. The study established the defined daily dosage per thousand inhabitants per day, cost per thousand inhabitants per day, cost per capita, and the rate of adoption or replacement medicines.

Results

The growth in the consumption of new medications was 830.0%. The defined daily dosage per thousand inhabitants per day grew from 4.3 to 42.9, with an increase of 905.5%. Medications with the highest growth were losartan/hydrochlorothiazide (15,723%), esomeprazole (4193%), atorvastatin (1402%), and sertraline (298%). There was an increase of US $16.40 in the cost per thousand inhabitants per day, which is equivalent to an increase of 61.7% and represents a rise of US $0.49 in cost per capita per month.

Conclusions

The consumption behavior of new medications and the economic implications for Colombia can be demonstrated. In particular, the growth in the consumption of medications for chronic diseases can be seen, which would represent an increase of US $22.6 million per month to the entire population of the country.