Japan Plans to Cut Spending for Drugs by 100B Yen: Nikkei

(Bloomberg) -- The Japanese government is planning to cut spending for public medical expenses by 100 billion yen ($913 million) in the fiscal year starting in April 2020, the Nikkei newspaper reported Sunday, without saying where it got the information.

The health and finance ministries are considering slashing the publicly set prices of drugs to save the nation roughly 1% of its medical spending, the newspaper said.

Separately, the Sankei newspaper reported Sunday that the government may end public insurance coverage for some drugs such as cold medicine because similar products are available over the counter. The move is aimed at curbing public medical spending.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Aaron Clark, Linus Chua

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