Tasks for Insuring the Composite Herbal Preparations of Sasang Constitutional Medicine in the National Health Insurance

Abstract

Reforming the insurance scheme for herbal drugs in the National Health Insurance is a long-cherished desire for Korean Medicine doctors. Because most Korean Medicine doctors distrust the quality of existing insured herbal drugs, which are powdered mixes of each herbal extract, the use and the expenditure of insured herbal drugs have been decreased in the last ten years. To address this, it has been demanded to insure the composite type of herbal preparation, which is the extracted powder of the whole prescription, to the benefit coverage for herbal drugs. Many stake holders, however, have so far been unable to reach an agreement on this. In this situation, Sasang Constitutional prescriptions are expected to make a breach of insuring the composite herbal preparations, because some of them were approved as prescription drugs in 1999. In this review, I discussed the problems of insured herbal drugs, the necessity of insuring the composite herbal preparations and Sasang Constitutional prescriptions, and the tasks of Sasang Constitutional Society to insure them.