Luo Zhenxuan
On December 3, the National Medical Insurance Administration announced the adjustment results of the 2021 National Medical Insurance Drug List.
In this adjustment, a total of 74 drugs were added to the catalog and 11 drugs were removed from the catalog.
Judging from the negotiation situation, 67 kinds of exclusive drugs outside the catalogue were successfully negotiated, with an average price reduction of 61.71%.
After the adjustment, the total number of drugs in the national medical insurance drug catalogue is 2,860, of which 1,486 are Western medicines, 1,374 are Chinese patent medicines, and 892 are traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.
This is a year-end health dividend for hundreds of millions of people-74 new drugs have been added to the catalog, high-value drugs have been included for the first time, price reductions and negotiation success rates have reached a new high. The new version of the National Medical Insurance Drug Catalog focuses on improving the level of protection for major diseases. Weave densely the people's medical protection net.
"Sky-price drugs" offer "civilian prices." High-value drugs were included for the first time in the negotiation of the medical insurance drug catalog, and the price drop was unprecedented.
Directory access negotiations have become an important means to guide the price reduction of medicines. Only when "sky-priced drugs" are reduced to "civilian prices" can they be included in medical insurance.
Compared with the original market price, through negotiation of price reduction and medical insurance reimbursement, this negotiation is expected to reduce the burden of patients by more than 30 billion yuan in 2022.
The updated new version of the medical insurance catalogue will greatly improve the accessibility of medicines and the fairness of medicines. It will be useful in advancing the "three-medicine linkage" reform of medical care, medical insurance, and medicine, improving the drug supply security system, regulating the order of drug production and circulation, and guiding the healthy development of my country's pharmaceutical industry. Will have great significance.
The newly included drugs in this adjustment involve a total of 21 clinical groups, supplementing the needs of drugs for tumors, chronic diseases, anti-infections, rare diseases, women and children, and patients benefit widely.
For example, otuzumab injection used for the treatment of lymphoma, Alzheimer's medicine mannote sodium capsule, diabetes medicine smeglutide injection and so on.
Take spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as an example, which is a neurodegenerative disease in which the proximal limbs and trunk are progressive, symmetrical muscle weakness and muscle atrophy due to degeneration of the anterior horn of the spinal cord and bulbar motor neurons.
It is estimated that there are 1,200 newly-increased neonatal SMA patients in my country each year, and there are about 30,000 patients in stock.
As the disease progresses, muscle weakness can further lead to abnormalities in the skeletal system, respiratory system, digestive system and other systems, among which respiratory failure is the most common cause of death.
The price of the well-known "expensive drug" Noxinagen Sodium Injection, which is 700,000 yuan per injection for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, has been drastically reduced after negotiations.
Not only will the price be reduced, but it can also be included in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement, which will greatly reduce the burden of medical treatment for families with children.
Expensive medicine costs not only bring a heavy burden to the common people, but also bring risks to the safety of the fund.
At present, my country's medical insurance fund financing level and guarantee capacity are still limited. The primary principle of the adjustment of the national medical insurance drug catalogue is still to "guarantee basics" and make full use of the limited funds to better meet the increasing medical and health needs of the people.
In the four years since the adjustment of the national medical insurance drug catalogue was carried out, a total of 507 new drugs have been added to the scope of national medical insurance payment, and a batch of "magic drugs" and "zombie drugs" have been removed from the catalog.
In this year's catalog adjustment, 11 drugs in the original catalog that have low clinical value, strong substitutability, and small purchases on the national recruitment platform in recent years have been transferred out of the catalog.
Through measures such as guiding the moderate competition of drugs and changing prices by quantity, the prices of some drugs in the catalogue have been reduced again to make room for the purchase of more cost-effective drugs. This has not only successfully achieved the upgrade of drug protection, but also achieved a higher level of "guarantee". Basic".
The medical insurance fund is not seeking the lowest price but a reasonable price.
In the future, comprehensively considering factors such as the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in my country and the affordability of individual patients, we will further adopt measures such as strict access to drugs outside the catalog and guiding the reasonable price reduction of drugs to find a price that most patients can afford , Benefiting the people to the greatest extent, will be able to continuously improve the people's health protection level on a sustainable basis.