From May, health insurance benefits for existing anticancer drugs will be maintained when combined with non-paying new drugs…KRPIA Welcome
Apr 23, 2025
From May 1st, even if non-paying anticancer drugs are used together, health insurance benefits for existing drugs will continue to be available, and the Korea Global Drug Industry Association (KRPIA) welcomed this.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's recent administrative notice on the criteria and methods of applying care benefits (drugs), cancer patients will be able to continue to receive health insurance benefits for existing drugs starting next month even if they use anticancer drugs that were covered by health insurance and newly developed non-payment anticancer drugs together.
Until now, anticancer drug combination therapy has been a structure in which the total cost of treatment is excluded from insurance coverage when the drug already covered by insurance and the expensive new drug that needs to be used are used together. Many cancer patients are in a situation where they stop or give up treatment, and there have been frequent cases of not making full use of the drugs even though there are actually insured drugs. However, it is expected that the revision of the notice will significantly reduce the burden on patients, greatly increasing the accessibility of drugs for patients.
According to KRPIA "This notification revision will substantially ease the economic burden, including treatment costs for cancer patients, while providing an opportunity to choose innovative and effective treatments for survival."
Previously, the Korea Association of Patient Organizations welcomed the decision by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and evaluated it as an important step toward correcting unreasonable health insurance coverage standards that have been around for a long time. In particular, considering the reality that it usually takes more than a year for new drugs to be listed on health insurance, the measure is expected to contribute greatly to preventing patients from giving up treatment for economic reasons.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's recent administrative notice on the criteria and methods of applying care benefits (drugs), cancer patients will be able to continue to receive health insurance benefits for existing drugs starting next month even if they use anticancer drugs that were covered by health insurance and newly developed non-payment anticancer drugs together.
Until now, anticancer drug combination therapy has been a structure in which the total cost of treatment is excluded from insurance coverage when the drug already covered by insurance and the expensive new drug that needs to be used are used together. Many cancer patients are in a situation where they stop or give up treatment, and there have been frequent cases of not making full use of the drugs even though there are actually insured drugs. However, it is expected that the revision of the notice will significantly reduce the burden on patients, greatly increasing the accessibility of drugs for patients.
According to KRPIA "This notification revision will substantially ease the economic burden, including treatment costs for cancer patients, while providing an opportunity to choose innovative and effective treatments for survival."
Previously, the Korea Association of Patient Organizations welcomed the decision by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and evaluated it as an important step toward correcting unreasonable health insurance coverage standards that have been around for a long time. In particular, considering the reality that it usually takes more than a year for new drugs to be listed on health insurance, the measure is expected to contribute greatly to preventing patients from giving up treatment for economic reasons.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
