The elderly who are entitled to receive the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly (CSI) will now have free access to prescription drugs at pharmacies. The measure, which will be approved by the Council of Ministers, is expected to cover 140,000 elderly people in a situation of economic vulnerability. 

Who is entitled to receive the CSI?

First of all, it is important to emphasize that the CSI is a monthly payment to elderly people with low incomes and disability pensioners who are not entitled to the Social Inclusion Benefit (PSI), according to Social Security.

The CSI is available to "low-income elderly people residing in Portugal, aged 66 years and 4 months or over, the normal age for accessing the old-age pension under the general social security scheme", according to Social Security. 

However, there are several conditions for accessing this benefit, which can be found here.

The free provision of medicines in pharmacies, a measure that is expected to get the 'green light' from the Government on Thursday, will be immediate in pharmacies, with no need for payments and refunds, according to Correio da Manhã, which broke the news.

The Notícias ao Minuto has already tried to obtain further clarification from the supervisory authority, namely on when the measure will come into effect, but so far it has not been possible to obtain an answer. 

In any case, the measure is expected to have a budgetary impact of over 10 million euros and "is part of the need to adopt policies that safeguard the elderly, especially those who are in a situation of greater vulnerability", a source from the Executive explained to the same newspaper.  

It is worth recalling that a measure came into effect in September last year that allows elderly people with low financial resources - who receive the CSI - to be entitled to co-payments for medicines on the spot, which means that they no longer have to pay the full amount at the time of purchase.

At the time, the previous Executive recalled that until then "users had to present the invoice at the health center and request Additional Health Benefits (50% discount on the portion of the price not covered by the State), within 180 days after the expense was made, and it was necessary to wait for the processing and payment of the refund, together with the pension and the CSI".

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