The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) has proposed including some medications for treating herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, in the National Health Insurance (NHI) program, a plan that could come into effect in October at the earliest.
Shingles is a viral disease characterized by a painful, blistery skin rash, and while there are about 250,000 people who have the disease in Taiwan, only about 60,000 can receive medicine covered by the NHI.
The disease is a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, which is the same virus that causes chickenpox, but only in one nerve root, and usually occurs when a person’s immune system is slightly weakened.
The medicine covered by the NHI is at present limited to those with certain serious conditions or those who have outbreaks near the eyes, genitals or trigeminal nerve, NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said on Friday.
Specialists say that people with shingles can recover on their own if their immunity is boosted, so most patients are only able to receive treatment at their own expense, Division of Medicinal Products section head Lien Heng-jung (連恆榮) said.
“People with shingles can suffer severe pain no matter where it occurs on the body, and there is already NHI-covered medicine for treatment,” Lee said. “Therefore, limiting the NHI-covered medicine to people who have shingles on particular body parts is incompatible with the NHI’s principle of fairness.”
At an NHIA specialists’ meeting in September last year it was discussed whether the restriction should be loosened to allow people older than 50, who have shingles anywhere on their body, to receive NHI-covered medicine for the first three days after the onset of symptoms, Lien said, adding that the Taiwanese Dermatologists Association earlier this year also proposed that the restriction be loosened.
In a meeting planned for next month, the administration would again propose that generic shingles drugs be covered by the NHI and made available to all shingles patients, he said.
If the proposal is approved, the policy might come into effect in October at the earliest, Lien added.
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