“Together for More Health”
In 2020, the PR Play team was engaged by the Association of the Research-Based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria (ARPharM) to carry out a campaign to increase public investment in healthcare – “Together for More Health”.
Such a campaign was needed because of the insufficient public resources for medicines and the introduction of innovative therapies, the high percentage of co-payments for medicines by patients, which often leads to compromise of their treatment due to it being interruption, as well as the few funds provided in the draft state Budget for 2021, that could not cover society’s needs.
The main goal of the campaign was to ensure the provision of more public funding for health care for 2021, and hence to increase funding for therapies. Achieving this was at risk, as the campaign took place in the context of the unprecedented global crisis caused by Covid-19, which clearly highlighted the fact that the health system in Bulgaria was not prepared to deal with it. The campaign also came amid several months of protests against the government because of dissatisfaction with the government as a whole and in the context of political struggles over the state Budget for 2021 and the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country.
The Bulgarian Medical Association and the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union were involved as partners. Further, the messages of the campaign were supported by facts from a nationally representative opinion poll and expert economic analysis.