MOHW drug pricing reform to likely bypasses NA briefing

Despite NA Health and Welfare Committee Chair Joo-min Park’s request, ruling and opposition floor leaders halt plenary coordination

With partisan confrontation and passive response from the ministry, the National Assembly’s role in checking executive action is being undermined

If the MOHW plan proceeds directly to HIPDC approval, backlash from the pharmaceutical industry e inevitable

Joomin Park, chair of NA Health and Welfare Committee

There is a growing likelihood that the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s drug pricing system reform plan, the first in 14 years, will be finalized and implemented without a formal briefing to the National Assembly.

Although Joomin Park, Chair of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, instructed Health and Welfare Minister Jung Eun-kyung to provide a separate briefing on the reform plan, it has been confirmed that the ruling and opposition floor leaders on the committee are not actively coordinating a schedule for a plenary session.

On the 17th, an official from an opposition lawmaker’s office on the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee explained, “We have heard absolutely nothing regarding a plenary session for a separate briefing on the drug pricing reform plan.”

If this explanation is correct, it means that despite Chair Park’s remarks on the need for a separate briefing on the drug pricing system, negotiations between Democratic Party floor leader Sujin Lee and People Power Party floor leader Miae Kim have come to a complete standstill. If an additional plenary session for the briefing is not held, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will proceed with the drug pricing reform plan, which has faced backlash from the pharmaceutical industry, without reporting to the National Assembly.

The need for an additional National Assembly briefing on the drug pricing reform plan first arose during the plenary session held on the 10th for the annual policy briefing by relevant government ministries, when Rep. Sun-min Kim of the Rebuilding Korea Party raised the need through a procedural intervention.

Rep. Kim criticized the ministry for attempting to push forward rapidly with the drug pricing reform—centered on across-the-board generic price cuts—despite opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, while including no update at all on the reform plan among the key issues in its official policy briefing.

At the time, Committee Chair Park agreed with Kim and told Minister Eun-Kyoung Jeong, “Because this is a very important matter, it would be a good idea to provide an additional briefing at a plenary session once the procedures related to the reform plan are completed.”

Nevertheless, the reason why the convening of the Welfare Committee’s plenary session remains a distant prospect appears to be rooted in the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s passive attitude and the suspension of consultations between the ruling and opposition parties.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has no incentive to take the lead in convening a plenary session at the administrative level, free from the burden of a one-point briefing, as the reform plan to lower the generic drug pricing rate from 53.55% to the 40% range has met with opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

As for the ruling party, given the ongoing fierce criticism from the opposition regarding the national vaccination campaign for COVID-19 vaccines found to contain foreign substances, which proceeded without proper procedure, the party has no reason to hold an additional plenary session that would expose it to further attacks from the opposition.

In fact, People Power Party lawmakers on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee have decided to file a complaint accusing Minister Eun-kyoung Jeong, who served as Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, of alleged dereliction of duty over the administration of 14.2 million doses of contaminated vaccines.

Time constraints also make an additional plenary session difficult. The ministry plans to finalize the details and implementation schedule of the drug pricing reform at the HIPDC meeting on the 26th, and physically, it may be impossible to hold an additional National Assembly briefing before then.

If the additional plenary session of the Health and Welfare Committee fails to materialize, the ministry is expected to have the reform plan approved at the HIPDC without first reporting it to the National Assembly.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to finalize the specific details and implementation date of the reform plan at the full HIPDC meeting on the 26th, following a subcommittee meeting on the 11th focused solely on the drug pricing reform plan and another subcommittee meeting on the 18th.

An official from an opposition party lawmaker’s office on the Health and Welfare Committee said, “It is uncertain whether a plenary session for an additional briefing on the drug pricing reform plan will be held. Time is tight physically, and I understand that both the ruling party and the ministry are passive about holding one. The conflict between the ruling and opposition parties over the contaminated vaccine issue and calls for Minister Jeong’s accountability are also affecting the failure to agree on the briefing for the drug pricing reform plan.”

The official continued, “In a situation where the opposition is demanding a hearing on contaminated vaccines and the indictment of Minister Jeong, an additional briefing on the drug pricing reform plan, which is already drawing strong resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, would naturally be burdensome for the ruling party. Although the pricing reform is an important policy that will shape the future of the pharmaceutical industry, and although Chair Park has requested a report on it, the government and ruling party seem to lack the will to proceed.”

An official from the office of Democratic Party floor leader Sujin Lee stated, “Given the timing, it seems difficult to hold an additional plenary session on the drug pricing system, but we plan to hear the opinions of the opposition party’s floor leadership. If an additional briefing proves difficult, we will also consider a plan for ruling party lawmakers to receive individual briefings on the reform plan from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.”