Busan City, 'Citizen Safety Insurance' Gets a New Upgrade!

Supporting Citizen Life Stability More Broadly and Thoroughly

Coverage Limit Increased to 15 Million KRW · 8 Additional Coverage Items

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dong-guk Lee] Mr. A received 4 million KRW in medical expenses after sustaining injuries classified as grade 3 when his child was injured in a traffic accident while crossing a crosswalk in a school zone in April last year.

Mr. B received 2 million KRW in insurance benefits after suffering a sequelae injury from falling while placing luggage in the luggage rack inside a subway car in October last year.

Both cases were compensated through the Busan City ‘Citizen Safety Insurance’.

Busan City Citizen Safety Insurance is an insurance fully funded by Busan City to support citizens' livelihood stability from various disasters and major accidents. Any citizen registered in Busan (including registered foreigners) is automatically enrolled.

Busan City Citizen Safety Insurance Promotional Poster.

Benefits can be received regardless of where the accident occurs, and coverage can overlap even if the citizen is enrolled in other insurance.

The coverage items (as of 2022) include death or sequelae injury from fire, explosion, collapse, landslide; death or sequelae injury while using public transportation; and medical expenses for injuries from traffic accidents in school zones.

From the introduction of Citizen Safety Insurance in February last year to December, there were 23 insurance claims, with a total payout of about 150 million KRW.

The highest number of claims was for fire-related deaths with 10 cases, followed by 7 cases of death or sequelae injury while using public transportation, and 3 cases of medical expenses for injuries from school zone traffic accidents.

Busan City announced that it will not stop at last year’s achievements but will reorganize the Citizen Safety Insurance to significantly expand coverage limits and items, effective from the 1st of next month.

This is to more comprehensively and thoroughly support the livelihood stability of Busan citizens from unexpected disasters and major accidents as the second year of Citizen Safety Insurance implementation begins this year.

First, the coverage limit will be raised to a maximum of 15 million KRW. The insurance limit for death or sequelae injury caused by fire, explosion, collapse, landslide, and while using public transportation will be increased from the previous maximum of 10 million KRW to 15 million KRW. However, medical expenses for injuries from traffic accidents involving children in school zones will maintain the maximum limit of 10 million KRW as last year.

Next, the coverage items will increase from the existing 5 items to 8 items.

The additional coverage items are ▲death caused by social disasters such as mass crowd accidents (coverage limit 10 million KRW), ▲death caused by natural disasters such as typhoons, heavy rain, heatwaves with potential for large-scale damage (coverage limit 10 million KRW), and ▲death from infectious diseases (coverage limit 3 million KRW).

During this reorganization process, the city coordinated with districts and counties that separately operate district/county resident insurance to adjust overlapping coverage items with Busan City Citizen Safety Insurance.

Districts and counties will compose and operate their own safety insurance tailored to regional characteristics, and details of safety insurance operated separately by districts/counties can be checked on each district/county website.

The city plans to actively promote the benefits of Citizen Safety Insurance to many citizens by providing Citizen Safety Insurance information upon requests such as ‘death report’ and ‘one-stop safe inheritance service (deceased property inquiry).’

Insurance claims for Citizen Safety Insurance can be filed within 3 years from the date of the accident or diagnosis of sequelae injury. When a claim reason occurs, the victim or legal heir can submit a claim form and required documents to the insurance company.

For other matters regarding claim procedures and coverage details of Citizen Safety Insurance, inquiries can be made to the contract insurance company call center.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “Busan City Citizen Safety Insurance is the first step toward realizing ‘Busan, a happy city that empowers me’ and ‘Busan, a city where I want to live again.’ We will continue to solidly promote Citizen Safety Insurance so that unexpected disasters and major accidents do not threaten the livelihood stability of Busan citizens.”