{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T00:52:41Z","timestamp":1777683161105,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,18]],"date-time":"2023-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1692316800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"funder":[{"name":"The Private Institution of Social Solidarity Dignitude"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J Health Serv Res Policy"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Out-of-pocket payments for prescribed medicines are still comparatively high in Portugal. The abem program was launched in Portugal in May 2016 to aid vulnerable groups by completely covering out-of-pocket costs of prescribed medicines in community pharmacies. This study assesses the impact of the program on poverty and catastrophic health expenditures.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A longitudinal study was carried out with the analysis of several program databases (from the beginning of the program in May 2016 to September 2018) covering the cohorts of beneficiaries, daily data on medicines dispensed, social referencing entities, and solidarity pharmacies. The study provides estimates of standard poverty measures (intensity and severity) as well as the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>More than 6000 beneficiaries were supported (56.8% female, 34.7% aged 65 or over), encompassing 127,510 medicines (mainly nervous system and cardiovascular system) with an average 26.9% co-payment (payments totalling \u20ac1.5 million). The program achieved substantial reductions in poverty (3.4% in intensity, 5.6% in severity), and eliminated cases with catastrophic health expenditures in medicines that would have affected 7.5% of the beneficiaries.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Findings confirm a continuous increase in the number of beneficiaries, enabling access to medicines especially for the vulnerable elderly, and a sizable impact on eliminating out-of-pocket payments for medicines in the target population.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1177\/13558196231196384","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,19]],"date-time":"2023-08-19T01:20:01Z","timestamp":1692408001000},"page":"4-11","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Measuring the value of solidarity: The\n                    <i>abem<\/i>\n                    financial assistance program for out-of-pocket payments on pharmacy medicines in Portugal"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"29","author":[{"given":"Miguel","family":"Gouveia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Associate Professor, Catolica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Margarida","family":"Borges","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Director, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Costa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Director, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Francisco","family":"Louren\u00e7o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Researcher, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Fiorentino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Researcher, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Ant\u00f3nio Teixeira","family":"Rodrigues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Director, Centre for Health Evaluation & Research, National Association of Pharmacies, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3873-7158","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"In\u00eas","family":"Teixeira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Senior Researcher, Centre for Health Evaluation & Research, National Association of Pharmacies, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9 Pedro","family":"Guerreiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Senior Researcher, Centre for Health Evaluation & Research, National Association of Pharmacies, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Patr\u00edcia","family":"Caetano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Researcher, Centre for Health Evaluation & Research, National Association of Pharmacies, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Ant\u00f3nio Vaz","family":"Carneiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Director, Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-13558196231196384","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.worlddev.2019.104716"},{"key":"bibr2-13558196231196384","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/jech.2004.022822"},{"key":"bibr3-13558196231196384","volume-title":"Sustainable goals for global development","author":"United Nations","year":"2015"},{"key":"bibr4-13558196231196384","volume-title":"The burden of healthcare on households\u2019 budget","author":"European Comission","year":"2019"},{"key":"bibr5-13558196231196384","volume-title":"People at risk of poverty or social exclusion","author":"Eurostat","year":"2020"},{"key":"bibr6-13558196231196384","first-page":"1","volume":"19","author":"de Almeida Simoes J","year":"2017","journal-title":"Health Syst Transit"},{"key":"bibr7-13558196231196384","volume-title":"Resident population at risk of poverty or social exclusion (%) by area of residence","author":"INE","year":"2020"},{"key":"bibr8-13558196231196384","volume-title":"Statistics on income and living conditions (SILC). 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