"Not a Populism Considering the Large Population with Hair Loss"
A video released on the 4th by the presidential campaign committee of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea's presidential candidate, on the YouTube channel 'Lee Jae-myung'. / Photo by YouTube capture
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Recently, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, proposed the pledge of "applying health insurance coverage to hair loss treatment drugs." However, patients with rare and intractable diseases have opposed this, saying it is "inappropriate given that many other severe diseases are not covered by health insurance."
The Korea Rare and Intractable Disease Association issued a statement on the 13th, saying, "In an ultra-low birthrate era, where even infants born with rare and intractable diseases and patients with life-threatening rare diseases are not guaranteed access to treatment, patients and their families find it hard to contain their grief just by the discussion of making hair loss treatment drugs reimbursable."
They continued, "Health insurance is already applied to pathological hair loss treatment," and pointed out, "Considering that there are many other severe diseases urgently needing health insurance coverage, the reimbursement of hair loss treatment drugs seems to completely disregard the priority order of health insurance benefits."
They also added, "We only hope this is not populism based solely on the fact that the population with hair loss is larger than that of rare disease patients."
According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, there are about 800,000 patients with rare and intractable diseases in Korea. On the other hand, according to the Korean Hair Loss Treatment Society, the domestic population with hair loss is estimated to reach 10 million, including those with mild symptoms or those who do not visit hospitals.
The organization explained, "Among 127 rare drugs (new drugs) marketed from 2011 to 2020, only 71, or 56.0%, were listed on insurance," adding, "The scale of health insurance expenditure on rare drugs in Korea was about 370 billion KRW as of 2018, accounting for only 2.1% of total drug costs, whereas the proportion of rare drugs in the global market exceeds 14%."
They urged, "We call for more resources to be invested in rare drugs to increase their share," emphasizing, "We sincerely hope that policies and pledges for rare disease patients become life-saving policies and do not become mere tools for political purposes."
Meanwhile, on the 4th, Choi Jong-yoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party, revealed that candidate Lee is pushing for a plan to apply health insurance to hair loss drugs as part of his so-called 'So-hwak-haeng' (small but certain happiness) pledge. This news caused considerable reactions on internet communities and social media (SNS).
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
