Even if all four family members earn money, 'dual income'... Health insurance premium threshold starts from 382,000 won

'Husband is company employee, wife is freelancer: Separate criteria applied for mixed health insurance subscribers'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Even if all members of a 4-person household earn income, the household will be classified as a "dual-income" household and is expected to receive 250,000 KRW per person in national support funds. The cutoff for support funds for dual-income households is when the combined health insurance premiums paid by family members, based on workplace subscribers, are 382,000 KRW or less. In the case of dual-income households where the husband works for a company and the wife is self-employed, a separate income standard applies.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 27th, the government plans to consider all households with two or more income earners as dual-income households and provide support funds accordingly. This applies not only when both spouses have income but also when there are three or four income earners in the family. For example, in a 4-person household consisting of a couple and two children, whether both spouses have income, one spouse and one child have income, or both spouses and all children have income, all are classified as dual-income households.

In this case, the combined health insurance premiums paid by family members, based on workplace subscribers, must be 382,000 KRW or less to receive support funds. For regional subscribers, the threshold is 423,000 KRW or less.

Previously, the government decided to provide 250,000 KRW per person in national support funds to the bottom 80%+α of income earners, setting the payment criterion at the bottom 80% or less of the combined household health insurance premiums for June. However, for dual-income households, a special standard adding one more household member is applied to raise the income threshold.

When workplace subscribers and regional subscribers coexist in one household, a mixed subscriber standard is applied. For example, in a dual-income 4-person household where the husband works for a company and the wife is a freelancer, the household is classified as mixed subscribers, and the support fund payment threshold is set at 414,300 KRW. Mixed subscribers are estimated to account for about 10% of all health insurance subscribers. Workplace subscribers account for about 65%, and regional subscribers about 25%.

The exact recipients of the support funds will be determined by cross-referencing health insurance premium payment information with resident registration information. For example, in dual-income households, health insurance payment information may group the father and dependent children as one household, while the mother is classified as a separate single-person household. To provide support funds based on household criteria, it is necessary to group them as one household based on resident registration information.

The selection process is expected to be completed around mid-next month. However, considering the COVID-19 quarantine situation, the actual disbursement of support funds is likely to occur between late August and mid-September.