TOKYO: Japan will no longer provide public aid for medical services related to COVID-19 from April, the health ministry officially announced on Tuesday.

After the end of the public aid, patients will be asked to pay 10 to 30 percent of COVID-19 drug costs out of pocket under the country’s health insurance system. Hospitalization subsidies will also be scrapped at the end of this month.

Health minister TAKEMI Keizo told a press conference on the day that the decision to end the public aid was based on the infection situation in the country.

“We have been preparing to receive COVID-19 patients in general hospital beds,” Takemi said. “There is no problem with the transition to the ordinary medical service system.”

Full public coverage of COVID-19 drug costs began in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic. After COVID-19 was downgraded to a category that includes seasonal influenza under Japan’s infectious disease law in May 2023, the public aid was reduced in October, with patients asked to pay 3,000 to 9,000 yen in drug costs, depending on their income.

From April, for example, Shionogi & Co.’s oral COVID-19 drug Xocova, priced at about 52,000 yen, will cost over 15,000 yen per treatment for people whose out-of-pocket payment rate under the health insurance system is 30 pct.

Hospitalization subsidies of 10,000 yen per month will also be discontinued, as well as subsidies to large hospitals that secure beds for COVID-19 patients and to elderly care facilities that accept patients.

Free COVID-19 vaccinations will also end at the end of March. People mainly aged 65 and older will be eligible for regular vaccinations from April.

JIJI Press