Should life-saving drugs for rare diseases be included in medical insurance?

Should be included in social security.

According to relevant media reports, "Nocardia sodium injection, the world's first drug for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), was officially included in medical insurance".

Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare systemic disease, which endangers many organs of the whole body and may lead to death or disability. About 1 person in every 50 people carries this gene, and the incidence rate is about 0.0 1%. If you don't see a doctor in time after getting this disease, you will usually die in a short time.

This disease is not incurable, as long as there are drugs to maintain, it can guarantee life. However, the treatment cost is very expensive. As a drug for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), 20 19 is not included in medical insurance, and the cost of one injection is as high as 700,000.

For ordinary people, they have no financial ability to treat, and they have basically been sentenced to death by this disease. However, in February of 202 1 and 1, things turned around. Nosina sodium injection was officially included in medical insurance, and the price of each bottle dropped from the initial 53,680 yuan to 33,000 yuan, a drop of as much as 20,000 yuan.

According to relevant analysis, the inclusion of medical insurance and price reduction this time means that the annual treatment cost of patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) may only need about 654.38+10,000 yuan. (Because a large part of 33,000 yuan can be reimbursed by medical insurance)

This shows that life-saving drugs for rare diseases should be included in social security. Mainly attributable to the following factors:

0 1. Although rare diseases are rare, there are still many patients.

Although the proportion of rare diseases in life is relatively small, there are not a few patients because of the large population base in China. Although the incidence of spinal muscular atrophy is low, the disability mortality rate is particularly high, and the number of patients is not small. If you don't include medical insurance, you can only wait for the trial of death.

02, the treatment cost of rare diseases is relatively high, and patients can't afford the treatment cost.

Take spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as an example. The treatment of this rare disease costs 700 thousand yuan for a single injection, which is impossible for ordinary people to afford. But it is different after it is included in medical insurance. A bottle only costs 33,000 yuan (excluding medical insurance reimbursement), and the annual treatment cost is about 654.38+10,000 yuan.

03. Rare diseases are basically serious diseases, so it is reasonable to include them in medical insurance.

Rare disease is also a serious disease. Since other serious diseases can be included in medical insurance reimbursement, a rare disease like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) should be included in medical insurance.

Therefore, rare diseases should be included in medical insurance.