Proposal to add many rare drugs to the list of insurance coverage

SGGPO September 18, 2023 17:35

On September 18, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Health held a workshop to solicit opinions on principles and criteria for developing a list of drugs within the scope of benefits for health insurance participants for some specific groups of drugs (rare drugs, combination drugs).

At the workshop, Ms. Tran Thi Trang, Acting Director of the Health Insurance Department, said that on average, the Health Insurance Fund pays 105,000 - 110,000 billion VND per year for about 150 million health insurance examinations and treatments, of which drug costs account for 34% of the expenditure structure. In particular, in 2022 and the first 6 months of 2023, 94 patients participating in health insurance were paid over 1 billion VND per year by the Health Insurance Fund.

The Ministry of Health proposes to expand the scope of health insurance coverage to cover many rare drugs.

There are currently about 300 million people in the world suffering from rare diseases, accounting for 4% of the world's population and 50% of them are children. These are diseases with expensive treatment costs and few treatment methods. While many new drugs have been invented and registered for circulation in Vietnam that are effective, safe and affordable, they have not been updated in the list of drugs covered by health insurance.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health is drafting criteria to add new drugs to the list of chemical drugs, biological products, radioactive drugs, and rare drugs within the scope of benefits for health insurance participants, in order to improve the quality of treatment and reduce the burden on patients.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/de-nghi-bo-sung-nhieu-loai-thuoc-hiem-vao-danh-muc-bao-hiem-chi-tra-post706089.html