Disease and economic burden for rare diseases in Taiwan: A longitudinal study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.

View Abstract

BACKGROUND

High-cost orphan drugs are becoming increasingly available to treat rare diseases that affect a relatively small population. Little attention has been given to the prevalence of rare diseases and their health-related economic burden in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the national trends in the prevalence of rare diseases and their health-related economic burden (including medication costs) in Taiwan.

METHODS

Rare disease-related claims data from 2003-2014 (12 years) from the National Health Insurance Research Database were used in this study. We used a time series analysis to assess trends in the yearly rates of treated patients with rare diseases, overall healthcare use, and expenditures, including drugs.

RESULTS

During the 12-year study period, the estimated prevalence of rare diseases increased from 10.57 to 33.21 per 100,000 population, an average rate of a 19.46% increase per year. Total health expenditures for treatment of rare diseases increased from US$18.65 million to US$137.44 million between 2003 and 2014, accounting for 0.68% of the total national health expenditures in 2014. Drug expenditures for treatment of rare diseases increased from US$13.24 million to US$121.98 million between 2003 and 2014, which accounted for 71.00% and 88.75% of the health expenditures for patients with rare diseases in 2003 and 2014, respectively. In 2014, we found a 20.43-fold difference in average health expenditures and a 69.46-fold difference in average drug expenditures between patients with rare diseases and the overall population.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of rare diseases and the related economic burden have grown substantially in Taiwan over the past 12 years, and these trends are likely to continue. Drug expenditures accounted for almost 90% of health expenditures for rare diseases. Further analyses are underway to examine the economic burden of individual rare diseases.

Investigators
Abbreviation
PLoS ONE
Publication Date
2018-09-21
Volume
13
Issue
9
Page Numbers
e0204206
Pubmed ID
30240449
Medium
Electronic-eCollection
Full Title
Disease and economic burden for rare diseases in Taiwan: A longitudinal study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.
Authors
Hsu JC, Wu HC, Feng WC, Chou CH, Lai EC, Lu CY