[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The market for so-called "beauty injections" such as garlic injections, vitamin injections, and whitening injections has grown to an annual scale of several hundred billion won, leading to an increasing burden on indemnity health insurance (real loss insurance).
There are concerns that some beauty injections are being excessively administered by clinics for profit, raising issues of safety and insurance fraud, highlighting the need for caution.
According to the Korea Insurers Association and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance on the 2nd, the scale of non-reimbursable prescriptions for beauty injections in Korea was estimated at around 200 billion won last year. Beauty injections refer to injections such as whitening injections, garlic injections, licorice injections, and placenta injections administered at clinics for skin beauty or health improvement purposes.
The domestic non-reimbursable beauty injection market has rapidly increased every year from an annual scale of 100 billion won in 2017. An increase in the use of non-reimbursable injections has also been observed in indemnity insurance claims. The loss ratio for non-reimbursable injections at major domestic non-life insurers has increased by 25% annually since 2017, becoming a major cause of indemnity insurance deficits alongside cataract and manual therapy treatments.
Another issue with beauty injections is safety. As the number of beauty injection procedures increases, so do adverse effects. From 2015 to 2018, 1,378 adverse event reports were submitted to authorities, including 116 serious cases such as septic shock.
While safety is declining, studies have also shown that the actual effectiveness is not significant. According to the "Safety and Efficacy Study of Beauty and Health Improvement Injections" report released last year by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, there is insufficient clinical evidence for the efficacy of non-reimbursable beauty injections except for Botox, while numerous serious adverse cases such as anaphylactic shock have been confirmed, indicating the need for caution.
Data from the Drug Adverse Event Reporting System and Consumer Harm Surveillance System revealed adverse cases such as rash, swelling, and hives in seven types of injections: Cinderella injection, whitening injection, garlic injection, placenta injection, vitamin injection, contour injection, and Botox.
Lee Min, head of the policy research team at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, stated, "Currently, there is insufficient evidence to confirm the efficacy of beauty injections. On the other hand, serious adverse cases such as anaphylactic shock continue to be reported, so caution is necessary when using them."
As beauty injection procedures increase, some cases of insurance fraud using false claims on indemnity insurance have also emerged. Recently, there have been reports of non-reimbursable injections being prescribed using COVID-19 emergency disaster relief funds and indemnity insurance claims being filed.
Jung Soo-eun, chief specialist at Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance, emphasized, "The unclear effects of beauty injections have become widely known to the public through their use by famous politicians and celebrities, leading to exaggerated claims of effectiveness despite low scientific evidence, which has resulted in an increase in non-reimbursable prescriptions. Amid this craze, cases of non-reimbursable injections being used for false indemnity insurance claims and insurance fraud are also increasing, so caution is necessary."
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