Price Regulation for Medicinal Products in Slovenia
The reference price system is applied in a practice in Slovenia with an aim to manage and reduce public expenditures for medicinal products. This paper aims to investigate whether the reference price system has had the effect on real price reductions for medicinal products. We present the reference price regulation system for medicinal products and empirically estimate the effect of price regulation on development of real prices for medicinal products, the economic rationale and efficiency of the system. The main thesis that the nominal and real prices for medicinal products have declined during the price regulation system is revealed by the Laspeyres index and Wilcoxon signed ranks test by confirming the existence of statistically significant differences in prices for medicinal products. Therefore, we adopt the alternative hypothesis that prices for medicinal products have declined during the price regulation system. The reference price regulation system with an efficient use of medicinal products and their efficient supply could have positive effects on management and reduction of public expenditure for medicinal products.