Korean Health Insurance Faces Mounting Pressure: union Calls for Increased Government Support
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Health Insurance Union Demands Greater Government Investment
The National Health Insurance Labor Union (Kunbo Union) is urgently calling for increased government support for the national health insurance system,asserting that a robust health insurance framework is crucial for driving public economic growth. The union contends that the government is consistently shifting financial burdens onto the health insurance system without adequate compensation,impacting both households and corporations.
Mounting Fiscal Strain on Health Insurance
A recent policy report by the Kunbo Union highlights notable financial losses and leakages within the health insurance system over the past 25 years. These issues are attributed to insufficient government funding and the transfer of national responsibilities, such as emergency medical care, onto the health insurance system.
Specifically, the report indicates an average annual loss of ₩3.55 trillion (approximately $2.7 billion USD) due to inadequate government subsidies. Furthermore, the emergency medical system, strained by medical service gaps, incurred losses of ₩1.33 trillion (approximately $1 billion USD) last year alone.additional financial burdens include ₩1.1 trillion (approximately $840 million USD) annually from extending health insurance to next-level beneficiaries, ₩230.7 billion (approximately $175 million USD) in government contributions related to COVID-19, and an average loss of ₩64 billion (approximately $48.7 million USD) due to financial leakages from secretary hospitals.
union’s Proposed Solutions: Legal Compliance and Financial Stability
To address these challenges, the Kunbo Union emphasizes the immediate need for the government to adhere to legal standards for health insurance subsidies and to actively prevent financial leakages. They advocate for maintaining laws and systems that promote the financial stability of the health insurance system.
While household and corporate health insurance premiums have surged by 97.3% over the past decade, from ₩41.59 trillion in 2014 to ₩82.36 trillion in 2023, the union argues that government support has not kept pace. This discrepancy is exacerbated by the government’s tendency to shift welfare responsibilities onto the health insurance system,leading to a cycle of financial strain.
The repeated government-repeated legal support and health insurance financial straws, which have been repeated in 2007, are the biggest obstacles to strengthening health insurance coverage and financial stability.
The union stresses that these practices hinder efforts to improve health insurance coverage and ensure long-term financial stability.
Korea’s Health Insurance Coverage Lags Behind OECD Averages
Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals that Korea’s health insurance coverage rate (64.9%) remains significantly lower than the OECD average (76.3%). This disparity,according to the union,poses a significant obstacle to the nation’s economic development.
In the last 2000, Korea was equipped with a national participatory public health insurance (NHI) system that the world was envious of, but as the comprehensive health insurance plan for each government has been promoted in fragmentation without legal support, the phenomenon that is stopped due to lack of connection with the next government.
The Kunbo Union urges policymakers to present comprehensive policy pledges and roadmaps with clear visions and alternatives to ensure widespread support for strengthening the health insurance system.