Full Exemption of Hospitalization Fees for Under 2 Years Old... Reassessment of 7 Drug Ingredients for Coverage

Selective Benefits and Non-Covered Services Are Excluded

The out-of-pocket expenses for inpatient care of infants under the age of 2 will be fully exempted within the scope of coverage going forward. A re-evaluation of the appropriateness of coverage will be conducted for seven drug ingredients that were registered a long time ago or are currently undergoing clinical re-evaluation.

Park Min-su, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, is speaking at the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee on the 30th.
[Photo by Ministry of Health and Welfare]

On the morning of the 30th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held the 9th Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee meeting and announced that it had approved this agenda.

At this Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee meeting, as a follow-up measure to the 'Policy Directions and Tasks for Low Fertility and Aging Society' announced by the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee in March, a plan was approved to zero out the out-of-pocket expenses for inpatient care of children under 2 years old to support healthy child growth. However, selective benefits and non-covered services within the coverage scope (5%) are excluded from the out-of-pocket exemption.

This decision reflects the increasing trend in the number of children requiring intensive care in early life, such as premature infants and low birth weight infants. In fact, the annual medical expense per person for those under 2 years old is 1.17 million KRW, which is higher compared to 620,000 KRW for ages 2 to 8. A Ministry of Health and Welfare official explained, "Considering the severe low fertility situation, we have prepared measures to improve out-of-pocket expenses," and added, "We plan to revise related laws and regulations aiming for implementation in the second half of this year."

The drug ingredients subject to re-evaluation of coverage appropriateness in 2024 have also been selected. The re-evaluation targets are seven ingredients that were registered a long time ago (1998?2001) and those currently undergoing clinical re-evaluation by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, where the need for re-examination of clinical usefulness has been raised.

Specifically, these are ▲Thioctic acid (for relieving neuritis) ▲Pranlukast hydrate (allergy medication) ▲Itopride hydrochloride (digestive system medication) ▲Sarpogrelate hydrochloride (improvement of ischemic symptoms) ▲Levodropropizine (antitussive and expectorant) ▲Mosapride (digestive system medication) ▲Formoterol fumarate hydrate (antitussive and expectorant).