*Popular pharmacies programme was created in Lula da Silva's first term in 2024
*The plan will reach all Brazilian municipalities
*Actions in the popular pharmacy programme may be the last major action in the mandate of Nisia Trindade
*The plan will reach all Brazilian municipalities
*Actions in the popular pharmacy programme may be the last major action in the mandate of Nisia Trindade
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NewsTranscript
00:00And Lula da Silva's government expanded delivery of free medicines from the popular pharmacy,
00:06a program that benefits 24 million people in Brazil.
00:10Our correspondents tell us more.
00:1341 medicines for the control of blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, among other pathologies,
00:21will be available to all inhabitants of Brazil 100% free of charge.
00:26The initiative benefits approximately 1 million people per year who are still paying co-participation
00:31to acquire the products.
00:38For example, Losartana is a drug for which you will pay a little less than a dollar,
00:42but there are patients who take two tablets, which is double the price.
00:46That's 20 dollars in the pocket of the customer who uses it for a year.
00:51Customers buy not only Losartana, but also other medicines, so the monthly bill of a
00:55customer who buys from a popular pharmacy can be a little less than 10 dollars.
01:06The popular pharmacies program was created in Lula da Silva's first term in 2004 and
01:11foresaw the opening of state-run delivery points.
01:14But this initiative was cancelled after the coup against Dilma Rousseff, when Michel Temer
01:18restricted the program only to the delivery of medicines in private pharmacies with a
01:22reduction in free medicines.
01:24The Bolsonaro government then cut 59% of the program's budget.
01:34We had more than 24 million people benefited in 2024, and we will increase that reach even
01:39more, mainly in the most remote areas of the country where there are more difficulties
01:47of access.
01:48And I must tell you that this program was practically destroyed in the previous government.
02:00The program will reach all Brazilian municipalities with the opening of registration in more than
02:04700 cities that did not already have the popular pharmacy program.
02:08It will also include nappies for the elderly in view of studies that reveal the demographic
02:13aging of Brazil's population.
02:20That causes a huge cost of living.
02:22It increases impoverishment.
02:24People need more consultations, more examinations, remedies all their lives.
02:27So it is very important, as it is in our constitution, our unique health system, the SUS, seeks to
02:32treat the different in an unequal way to try to equalize them.
02:40So we understand that chronic diseases should have more support from the state.
02:50The actions in the popular pharmacy program may be the last major action in the mandate
02:54of Nidia Trindade, who could leave office in the next few hours as part of a ministerial
02:58reform that seeks to leave behind the post-Bolsonaro reconstruction stage, for a second half of
03:04the mandate with transcendental projects that will leave marks of the government.