<Anchor> This
is a friendly economic time. Today (the 6th) I will be with reporter Han Ji-hyun. Democratic presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung seems to be attracting a lot of people's attention as he hints that hair loss treatment may be covered by health insurance.
<Reporter>
Yesterday, 10 million hair loss people were excited. This is because candidate Lee Jae-myung is considering applying health insurance to hair loss treatment as a promise.
If there are 10 million people with hair loss, it means that 1 in 5 people is suffering from hair loss. Only 233,000 people were treated for hair loss. It can be seen that it was aimed at 230,000 votes. As expected, the reaction of bald people was hot.
In the hair loss community, there were many comments such as "This is the hope of millions of people with hair loss", "This is the best promise of all time", "I agree with you", of course, there are also many opinions that it is not feasible.
"We need to put more budget into rare and incurable diseases that take life more than hair loss", "There will be equity problems with cosmetic and plastic dermatology treatments", and "It will lead to an increase in health insurance premiums" and so on.
However, when health insurance is applied, the related market is expected to grow rapidly as the burden on patients is reduced. Because of this expectation, it immediately affected the stock market to the extent that the word 'political theme stock' came out.
Yesterday, the stock price of a hair loss treatment company rose by more than 21%.Hair loss shampoo companies also rose up to 30%.
<Anchor>
Judging from the opinions of those on the other side of this pledge, it seems that they are criticizing a lot of people like this, saying that it is a very active populist policy. However, if this is applied to health insurance as a hair loss treatment, how beneficial is it?
<Reporter>
The most commonly used treatment for hair loss now is hair loss treatment, because it is much less burdensome even compared to transplant surgery. Of course, not all hair loss is covered by health insurance.
Pathological hair loss, such as stress-related hair loss or hair loss due to seborrheic dermatitis, is covered by health insurance. Hair loss due to aging or heredity is not covered by health insurance because it falls under the 'beauty' category.
However, if this is covered by insurance, the patient usually pays only 30% of the drug price. Although the price of each drug is different, if the average drug price per month is about 45,000 won, it is calculated that it will go down to 10,000 won, which is about a third.
If it is extended to hair transplantation, the cost of about 4 million won will fall to the low 1 million won range.
However, criticism of this promise as populism is not unheard of. Some point out that health insurance could run out in 2025 as deficits pile up in recent years.
It also conflicts with the existing government welfare policy. The so-called Moon Jae-in Care health insurance coverage should be strengthened. For the past four years, we have been focusing our health care finances on serious and expensive diseases such as leukemia and pancreatic cancer.
Also, looking at the response of the medical community, there were many opinions that it would be impossible in consideration of the financial problem and there is no case where the state guarantees cosmetic treatment anywhere in the world.
<Anchor>
But what I'm curious about is that hair loss usually progresses as you get older. So, I think the elderly will have a lot of trouble with hair loss, but if you look at the generation that Lee Jae-myung's policy is more positively responding to, there are many young people in their 20s and 30s. It seems that young people have a lot of trouble with their hair, these days. (Anchors don't need to worry about the thickness of their hair.) Not now, but I'm always thinking about it.
<Reporter>
I am confident in my hair thinning, but I am thinking about buying a shampoo for hair loss recently as a preventative measure.
Recently, this hair loss problem is not only experienced by older people, but also by young people. According to recent data, among the patients treated for hair loss, there are over 100,000 in 2030, which is close to 44% of the total.
The rate of increase is also steep. Over the past five years, the number of hair loss patients in their 20s has increased by 15%, exceeding the overall increase rate of 10% during the same period.
Because of this, a new word called 'young hair loss' with the 'young' added to it has appeared, so when you see ads for 'hair loss shampoo' these days, there are many cases where MZ generation stars like Son Heung-min, G-Dragon, and Suzy are featured.
Also, the number of people in their 20s and 30s who manage them in advance has also increased.
This is because the 'Early Care Syndrome', which manages wrinkles and hair loss from the 20s and 30s, is spreading even if there is no specific case of hair loss.
Early Care Syndrome Seoul National University's consumption trend analysis center said it while forecasting the trend in 2022, that is, this year.
It's early management.
As the concept of health changes from treatment to prevention, it is now becoming a trend for the younger generation to manage and prevent in advance.
It is said that sales of hair loss shampoos increased by 127% at the largest health and beauty specialty store in Korea, which is popular with young people.