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The story
Starting next March, “OTC-similar drugs” — medications like Loxonin pain-relief patches whose active ingredients closely match over-the-counter products — will be dropped from Japan’s public health insurance coverage, meaning patients will have to pay close to retail price out of pocket. A man who has worked construction sites for 30 years while being treated for rheumatoid arthritis says he simply can’t work without his painkillers. A group of patients and doctors submitted a petition with 110,000 signatures to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare calling for the policy to be reconsidered. On 5ch, voices criticizing the reality that patches are so over-prescribed that households end up with unused bundles piling up clashed with calls for consideration toward those who can’t do without their medication due to their symptoms, and the debate spread further into discussions of copayment rates and the state of elderly healthcare.
“There’s no such thing as a patient who doesn’t need consideration. It’s only because of this medicine that I can work.” — so says Yoshihisa Watanabe of the Tokyo Doken General Labor Union, who developed rheumatoid arthritis at age 34 and has continued working construction while undergoing treatment for 30 years.
Steroid medication used to control his pain caused osteoporosis as a side effect, and he has kept working as a tile setter, managing the resulting back pain with Loxonin patches and similar drugs.
These patches and painkillers — “OTC-similar drugs” prescribed at medical institutions but containing ingredients very similar to over-the-counter products — will partly move outside insurance coverage, effectively becoming more expensive starting next March. On September 17, Watanabe and a group of patients and doctors held a rally in Tokyo and submitted a petition with 110,000 signatures to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare calling for the policy to be scrapped.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Go to an osteopathic clinic and they give you a whole bundle of them
Nobody needs that many
Some people do need them though
I think it'd be better to just take osteopathic clinics out of insurance coverage entirely
If it's a tension headache it might work for some people
With shingles they told me it's nerve-related pain so Lyrica-type drugs don't work at all
Whatever they gave me at the pain clinic seemed to help though
The price isn't just what you'd get by simply adding back the 70% insurance used to cover
Well of course it's expensive, the store's profit margin is baked in on top
Stop relying on drugs
Wonder what'll be called "too cheap" next
For something like a cold it'll end up costing about the same as just buying OTC medicine
Whoever's pocketing the amount above the full (100%/"10-wari") price, I wonder where that goes
Honestly, hospitals hand out huge stacks of patches even to people who don't even like using them
I barely use mine
The elderly folks in my family actually like using patches, and we've already got a mountain of stock at home
Basically they're just over-prescribing, and now the government's decided to raise prices to fix the finances because of that over-prescribing
They should've just restricted how much gets prescribed in the first place
In the end they just go unused and become burnable trash
So it's about personal responsibility, right?
If so, then health insurance should be unnecessary for them too, and we'd need a tax deduction bracket for singles as well
So at 100% copay it'd be 126 yen
Meanwhile at the drugstore it's 1800 yen
What is going on here
Well, that much is unavoidable I guess
When you use public health insurance
the official drug price is kept low
That's because money's being put in from elsewhere (insurance subsidy), that's exactly why the price is that low
Even including the consultation fee, it's like a 10x difference
OTC drugs are just too expensive
That's how it should be
Elderly people go to the hospital constantly anyway, 50% copay would be fine
Re: #116
Whether it's 50% or 100%, in the end they'll end up on welfare (seikatsu hogo) and it'll be paid 100% from insurance premiums and taxes anyway
Since hospitals can't refuse to treat someone
Stuff like MRI appointments a year out, or only being able to see someone in six months even with heart disease
Apparently there are places that'll see you if you pay even more, though
And that public safety situation (in the US) is the result, so if you're fine accepting that too, sure, go for it
The UK, with its free healthcare, is wild too
No budget, and the waiting list for patients needing hospitalization has topped 6 million
Waiting over a year even with cancer has become normal
Germany, which also has free healthcare, is starting to turn into the same situation as the UK
You could resell it and make even more money than now
They should collect medical costs from welfare recipients ("namapo") too
You're a genius
I'm quitting my job
Just abolish the welfare system and it's solved
Apparently people sell stuff like sleeping pills on the street too, so those guys are the real winners
Background and key points of this debate
“OTC-similar drugs” refers to medications prescribed at medical institutions whose active ingredients are nearly identical to over-the-counter products like cold medicine or pain patches. As part of its efforts to curb healthcare costs, the government is moving to gradually remove such drugs from insurance coverage, and this round of Loxonin patches falls under that policy. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare argues that most users have only mild symptoms, while patient groups point out that a certain number of people with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis need patches and painkillers on a daily basis — and this gap in perception over “the reality of the patients who’ll be excluded” is the starting point of the debate. Within the thread, discussion of whether the policy change itself is right or wrong gets mixed together with a separate issue — that hospitals are “over-prescribing,” leaving patches to pile up unused at home — and it’s worth keeping in mind while reading that whether to raise the burden and whether prescribing practices need fixing are, properly speaking, two separate questions.
*This article was compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Hospital Loxonin patch at 38 yen becomes 1,800 yen at “retail price”… Elderly man: “Can’t work without it” — the state’s “consideration” excludes 99% of patients too.”
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