Interest Groups' Influence over Drug Pricing Policy Reform in South Korea

Chung, Woojin; Kim, Han Joong

doi:10.3349/ymj.2005.46.3.321

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, legal uninsured items and full pocket items were also included at this point, leading to a greater burden on households 28,29 with OOP as high as 40%. The health insurance finance was exhausted owing to significant changes in the health insurance system and the separation of dispensing from medical practice 30,31 . Moreover, there were challenges with the collection of insurance premiums (2000‐2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Medical cost trends under national health insurance benefit extension in Republic of Korea

Kim

2020

Health Planning & Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines whether the burden of medical expenses on households has gradually decreased since South Korea began implementing benefit expansion policies to strengthen health insurance coverage. Using Korea's Household Income & Expenditure Survey from 1995 to 2014, the annual average monthly household expenditures and the catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) indicator were analyzed. The latter is an indicator of household impoverishment resulting from out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures exceeding a defined threshold proportion of the household's income. Through descriptive and frequency data analyses and using P-values, the annual trends and differences in absolute values and share of CHE prevalence across households were measured. The study finds that the proportion of income spent on medical expenses increased from 2.47% (1995) to 4.94% (2014) on average. CHE also increased 3.6 times, 6.3 times, 9.8 times, and 11.1 times for assumed threshold sizes of 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%, respectively. The lowest income group had the highest increase in CHE incidence. These results suggest that the benefit extension policy has lowered medical use thresholds and led to an increase in medical resource use. Therefore, the Ministries of Health and Welfare, and of Economy and Finance should collaborate to design policies for vulnerable groups.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…system and the separation of dispensing from medical practice. 30,31 Moreover, there were challenges with the collection of insurance premiums (2000)(2001)(2002). This deteriorating financial condition led Health Insurance Review & Assessment (HIRA) to make drastic cuts in hospital payments.…”

Section: Trends By Segmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical cost trends under national health insurance benefit extension in Republic of Korea

Kim

2020

Health Planning & Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In some countries where HTA was being considered and implemented, economic evaluation studies revealed poor practices and fewer methodological flaws in the low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) as well as in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Thailand . South Korea, an OECD country, has switched from the use of cost‐plus and ERP to implementing HTA since 2007 . No negative feedback has been reported from the country.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmaceutical pricing policies in Qatar and Lebanon: narrative review and document analysis

Rida

Ibrahim

Babar

2019

J Pharm Health Serv Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives This study aimed at reviewing and analysing the pharmaceutical pricing policies implemented in two middle-east countries. Methods Official documents related to national pharmaceutical pricing policies were reviewed, and meetings with key informants in the registration and pricing departments in the Qatari and Lebanese ministries of public health were conducted. Key findings As of April 2017, the laws currently in effect in Qatar and Lebanon are based on the latest versions of decrees enacted in 2011 and 2005 respectively. Both countries have implemented similar pharmaceutical pricing policies which apply only to the private sectors in both countries. Landing price in Lebanon is either free-on-board (FOB) or cost-insurance-freight (CIF) while it is only CIF in Qatar. External reference pricing and mark-up regulations were two of the common policies identified in both countries. For external reference pricing, the basket of countries considered and the price adopted were different. Mark-ups were applied with different schemes along the pharmaceutical supply chain in each country with Qatar imposing an overall higher mark-up margin. Moreover, Qatar utilized health technology assessment whenever such economic evaluation studies were available at the time of medicine registration. These pricing strategies applied to both public and private sectors in Lebanon, while they only applied to the private sector in Qatar. Conclusions The pharmaceutical pricing policies implemented in Qatar and Lebanon are reflective of both the advancements in the human capital and financial resources of the nations and are in line with the World Health Organization-recommended pricing policies for developing countries.

show abstract

“…The government might need to tackle interest groups that structure the society. Persuasion tactics could be used with them in an attempt to gain their support for the government plan to implement cost sharing in relation to pharmaceuticals in public hospitals [28].…”

Section: A High Dependence On Subsidized Healthcare Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different mechanisms to contain the cost of pharmaceuticals in Malaysia

Dzulkipli

2012

2012 International Conference on Innovation Management and Technology Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The rise of pharmaceuticals cost in Malaysia had put pressure on the Ministry of Health in managing scarce resources in the healthcare sector. Currently, drugs that are listed in the National Drug List are supplied free of charge through government hospitals and clinics. The main objectives of this paper were to review mechanisms that could be used to contain government expenditure on pharmaceuticals and to make recommendations as to which of these mechanisms should be adopted in Malaysia. In addition, an overview of the healthcare sector in Malaysia was presented, and current trends in pharmaceutical spending in Malaysia were compared with those of developing countries, namely Thailand and South Korea. Four mechanisms for containing the cost of pharmaceuticals were reviewed -the use of a national formulary, reference pricing, imposing restrictions on physicians, and cost sharing. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these mechanisms, the following were put forward as recommendations to contain the costs of pharmaceuticals in Malaysia: (i) to increase the role of cost sharing in the funding of pharmaceuticals in the public sector with exemption fees or other mechanisms used to safeguard low income groups from the increase in prices (ii) to introduce a requirement for the economic evaluation of new drugs seeking listing on the national formulary and only list those drugs that are shown to be cost-effective and (iii) to break the wholesaler monopoly of the drug supply and introduce a tender process whereby pharmaceutical companies compete to supply drugs to the public healthcare system.Keywords national formulary, reference pricing, imposing restrictions on physicians, and cost sharing I.

show abstract

Interest Groups' Influence over Drug Pricing Policy Reform in South Korea

Cited by 6 publications

References 6 publications

Medical cost trends under national health insurance benefit extension in Republic of Korea

Medical cost trends under national health insurance benefit extension in Republic of Korea

Pharmaceutical pricing policies in Qatar and Lebanon: narrative review and document analysis

Different mechanisms to contain the cost of pharmaceuticals in Malaysia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About