President Yoon: "Achieve Cross-Partisan National Consensus on Pension Reform"

Ministry of Health and Welfare Work Report... Yoon Orders "Thorough Inspection of Excessive National Health Insurance Financial Expenditures"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 19th, President Yoon Seok-yeol instructed, "I hope the pension reform promotion will derive bipartisan and nonpartisan national consensus based on meticulous opinion gathering and thorough empirical data."

President Yoon gave this instruction while receiving a work report from the Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the Yongsan Presidential Office, according to a written briefing by spokesperson Kang In-seon.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare's work report was conducted for 1 hour and 40 minutes starting at 3 p.m. Since the Minister of Health and Welfare position is vacant, First Vice Minister Cho Gyu-hong and Second Vice Minister Lee Ki-il conducted the work report.

In the work report, the Ministry stated, "We plan to actively participate in the mutually beneficial pension reform." After starting the pension financial calculation within this month, they plan to prepare a pension reform plan linked to the basic pension increase (from 300,000 won to 400,000 won) and submit it to the National Assembly in the second half of next year.

The Ministry also reported that it will implement bold expenditure reforms for health insurance.

President Yoon instructed, "Please conduct a precise review of the wasteful health insurance financial expenditures and focus on strengthening essential medical infrastructure and severe treatment."

He also said, "Welfare should focus on the vulnerable rather than political welfare aimed at gaining votes," and ordered, "Please properly identify and provide substantial support to the true social vulnerable and disadvantaged groups that were not well revealed due to the difficulty of collectively voicing a single opinion."

In addition, he requested ▲ the creation of a virtuous cycle of welfare and growth and quality job creation through the expansion of social services ▲ the transition from political quarantine to targeted and scientific quarantine.