insurance in the region tracked the diabetes indication in every country a member reported on
#asia 2026-05-16
Saturday46 messages9 participantstimes are UTC
Highlights from this day
- quiet.hours — and that is the failure mode of a market solving access very well and oversight very badly 17:11
- split_dose_sam — the four patterns in one table, member-reported as of 2025, all of it moves 17:29
- juno_joins — the Japan column is such an outlier 17:30
- bengaluru_bac — pick your complaint. thats every health system in one phrase 18:15
is it covered by insurance anywhere in the region
generics being available and generics being right for your situation are different questions, and only one of them is a chat question
[edited]the honest position on india is that i have seen good material and bad material and the paperwork told me nothing either way, someone check my working
japan approved it
korea is fast
while im here coming back after 14 months, has anything changed on availability in the region
reported by members, own currency, not comparable directly
private clinic, UK 145 - 220
statutory, DE 10 co-pay
private script, DE 180 - 240
pharmacy, PL 95 - 140
pharmacy, SE 210 - 260anyone shipped from inside the region and had it take longer than from further away
anyone compared a japanese pharmacy price against a private clinic in the region
get it tested anyway
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how do people handle the language side with a local pharmacy
india has a real generics manufacturing base and a real domestic market. what a specific product is, and whether it matches its label, is a separate question every single time
as of about a year ago korea had the shortest path from deciding to starting of anywhere members here had described
approval isnt cheap
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is Japan actually cheaper for this or is that an internet thing
it is genuinely cheaper, and the reason is boring. prices are set nationally rather than negotiated by you
if something is on the national insurance list, the price is the price, everywhere, and your share of it is a fixed percentage
so weight management is covered
with quite strict eligibility, yes, as of 2025. it is not a walk-in thing. the criteria involve BMI thresholds plus specified comorbidities
if you do not meet them you are in the self-pay clinic world like everyone else, and self-pay in Tokyo is not cheap
worth noting how unusual that is. most countries approved it for weight and then declined to pay for it
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Korea did the opposite thing. approved, launched, and it went straight into an enormous private clinic market
what does that look like
there is a long standing culture here of dedicated weight clinics. they existed decades before any of this and they were already prescribing appetite suppressants
so when the new drugs arrived there was an entire industry ready to sell them the same afternoon
which is efficient and also means the quality of the consultation varies enormously
varies is generous. i went to three before i found one who weighed me
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before one WEIGHED you
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the first two asked what dose i wanted
and that is the failure mode of a market solving access very well and oversight very badly
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Singapore is the third pattern again. approved, available, entirely private for weight, and priced like Singapore prices things
no subsidy for the weight indication that i am aware of. the diabetes side is a different conversation
the four patterns in one table, member-reported as of 2025, all of it moves
| Where | Weight indication paid publicly | Typical monthly self-pay | Access texture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | yes, strict criteria | ¥20,000-¥45,000 | clinic gatekept, price fixed nationally |
| South Korea | no | ₩350,000-₩600,000 | abundant clinics, variable oversight |
| Singapore | no | SGD 380-620 | private, well regulated, expensive |
| Hong Kong | no | HKD 2,400-4,000 | private clinics, fast, no subsidy |
the Japan column is such an outlier
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it is, and the flip side is the criteria are enforced properly. plenty of people who want it here simply cannot get it
cheap and gatekept versus expensive and available. pick your complaint
pick your complaint. thats every health system in one phrase
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the other Korean thing is that supply here tracked global shortages very visibly. one month everywhere had it, next month nowhere
allocation, same as Europe. small markets and self-pay markets get squeezed first
Hong Kong felt the same. a pharmacist told me they were getting a third of what they asked for and i believe her
does anyone travel between these for supply
people do, and it is a bad idea more often than it is a good one. every one of these places has its own import rules and none of them care about your itinerary
and we are not going to work out routes in here. describe the systems, dont plan the trips
correct, and there is a serious import documentation regime here that people find out about at the airport
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back to the Japanese criteria — can you appeal them or is it a hard line
there is clinical judgement in the room, so it is not a machine. but the framework is a framework and no amount of asking nicely changes a BMI number
no amount of asking nicely changes a BMI number, filed under things this channel repeats
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