The Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) has approved the decision to make the contraceptive pill free for women of all age groups, with a total cost to the state coffers estimated at around 140 million euros a year, according to reported the specialized website "Quotidiano Sanità"
"Quotidiano Sanità" anticipated it with an interview with the president of the Price and Reimbursement Committee (CPR), Giovanna Scroccaro, the body in charge of deciding which drugs are covered by the health system.
The so-called AIDS preventive pill was also approved, the drugs based on tenofovir, disoproxil and emtricitabine, used in the treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and which will be reimbursed and will be borne by the State.
Although it will still take time, Scroccaro explained that this decision was necessary "to make contraception free in Italy" within 3 categories of contraceptive drugs, identified and divided by generation, the cheapest products, which were made free, were evaluated.
The estimated cost for the State is around 140 million euros per year, "but it is an important decision, which will make it possible to increase the number of women who today, perhaps, considered the cost of these contraceptives too high and therefore do not use them. used," he added.
Scroccaro adds that "contraception has always been little used in Italy and this may now change."
"A decision that we were waiting for. Some regions had already decided for the youngest. It is an important step for the protection of sexual and reproductive health," said Senator Cecilia D'Elia of the opposition Democratic Party on her networks today.
While Maria Rachele Ruiu, a member of the conservative and anti-abortion association "Pro Vita
