Lecanemab entered the first edition of China's Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalogue on 1 January 2026. What actually decides whether a patient can use it, though, is local: whether a city's Huiminbao (supplementary medical insurance) is willing to put it on its special-drug list, and whether it pays directly. This post consolidates the catalogue published in Eisai's "Yinfa Tong" mini-programme (organised as nationally available, provincial and municipal) against verified information from People's Daily Online, Xinhua and local healthcare-security bureaus.
Coverage: 2 nationally available channels (the employee family cancer-prevention card and the veterans' family cancer-prevention card); 6 provinces with 7 products (Beijing Puhui Health Insurance, Xinjiang Fukangbao, Ganhuibao, Ningxia Yihuibao, Liaohuibao, Hainan Global Special Drug Insurance, Huiqiongbao); 20 cities with 20 products at municipal level.
Three numbers worth watching:
1. Annual payout ceiling — lecanemab costs roughly RMB 190,000–200,000 a year (modelled at 60 kg, 10 mg/kg every two weeks, excluding infusion and ARIA management), while Ningxia caps a single drug at RMB 150,000 per year and Jiangxi at only RMB 50,000;
2. Deductible and reimbursement ratio — Beijing's special-drug liability has no deductible and pays 65% for healthy members; Ningxia applies a flat RMB 15,000 deductible; Jiangxi has no deductible for members without pre-existing conditions but reimburses only 20%; Huiqiongbao has no deductible and pays up to RMB 1 million;
3. Pre-existing condition clauses — most products reduce the ratio or exclude pre-existing conditions outright, and AD patients often already carry hypertension or diabetes.
Where only the listing could be confirmed and no official premium or ratio was available, the article says "subject to the policy wording" throughout. No numbers were invented on the insurers' behalf.
What I want to discuss: is your city on the list? For the places marked "subject to the policy wording", has anyone actually received a reimbursement statement — and how much came back? That number is far more useful than the catalogue itself.
This is the original text published on WeChat by "阿尔茨海默病研究" (byline Archie_AD) on 25 October 2026, archived here for discussion.