Proposal to add 28 cancer treatment drugs to the list of health insurance coverage

The information was provided by pharmacist Nguyen Quoc Toan, Department of Health Insurance, Ministry of Health on the sidelines of a workshop to disseminate Circular 37 and collect opinions on the list of health insurance drugs, on December 5.

In the list of new drugs proposed for addition by hospitals sending their dossiers to the Ministry of Health, there are 75 drugs with 25 groups of effects, including 28 targeted drugs for cancer treatment, the rest are antibiotics, insulin and drugs for treating blood sugar, drugs for treating heart failure, mental disorders, high blood pressure, angina, contrast agents, Parkinson's, pain relievers, antipyretics, dermatology, endocrine, urinary tract treatment, antithrombotic, antifungal, blood clotting treatment, detoxification, antiviral drugs...

According to Mr. Toan, the health insurance fund is limited, so the council will have to analyze the impact to choose which new drugs will be added to the list of health insurance payments.

"The Council will consider and put the drug into the list of health insurance payments to achieve the highest and best efficiency for patients, while balancing the fund," said Mr. Toan. It is expected that the new drug list will be issued in the first quarter of 2025.

Patients waiting to buy medicine at the hospital. (Photo: NL)

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang, Director of the Department of Health Insurance, Ministry of Health, Circular No. 37 recently issued by the Ministry of Health also publicly and transparently discloses the criteria for selecting drugs to be included in the health insurance list. The Ministry of Health will update new drugs and remove from the list drugs with warnings of ineffectiveness and inappropriateness.

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that medicine is always an important component, accounting for a large proportion of total medical examination and treatment costs under health insurance.

The list of drugs covered by health insurance is issued in a separate document to ensure regular updates. In fact, this list has been slow to update in the past, failing to meet the medical examination and treatment needs of health insurance participants.

Many new, effective drugs have not been included in the list of drugs covered by health insurance, so when prescribed, patients have to pay for them themselves. This increases the rate of out-of-pocket payments.

Therefore, the third principle when building and updating the drug list is to ensure the rights of health insurance participants, contributing to gradually reducing the direct payment rate of health insurance participants.

Nhu Loan

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/de-xuat-bo-sung-28-thuoc-dieu-tri-ung-thu-vao-danh-muc-bao-hiem-y-te-chi-tra-ar911715.html