As the elderly population rapidly increases, it was revealed that last year the medical expenses for the elderly covered by health insurance approached approximately 46 trillion won. Elderly medical expenses have been sharply rising since they first exceeded 30 trillion won in 2018.
According to the '2022 Health Insurance Statistical Yearbook' jointly published on the 3rd by the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, last year the health insurance medical expenses for those aged 65 and older amounted to 45.7647 trillion won, a 10.6% increase from the previous year. Health insurance medical expenses include the benefits paid by health insurance to medical institutions and the out-of-pocket payments made by patients to medical institutions.
Elderly medical expenses surpassed 30 trillion won in 2018 (31.8235 trillion won) and broke through 40 trillion won in 2021 (41.3829 trillion won), just three years later. Except for 2020 (5.1%), the year-over-year growth rate of elderly medical expenses has exceeded 10% annually over the past five years. The proportion of the population aged 65 and older rose from 13.9% (7.1 million people) in 2018 to 17.0% (8.75 million people) last year. A National Health Insurance Service official explained, “The increase in the elderly population leads to a rise in elderly medical expenses.”
Last year, the total health insurance medical expenses were recorded at 105.8586 trillion won, a 10.9% increase from the previous year. The average annual medical expense per capita for the entire population surpassed 2 million won for the first time, reaching 2.06 million won. In 2021, it was 1.86 million won.
Last year, 3.924 million patients had annual medical expenses exceeding 5 million won. Their medical expenses totaled 53.3136 trillion won, accounting for half (50.4%) of the total medical expenses.
As the total health insurance medical expenses grow, the amount of health insurance premiums is also increasing. As of the end of last year, the total premium assessed was 76.7703 trillion won, a 10.5% increase from the previous year. Workplace insurance premiums amounted to 66.6845 trillion won, and regional insurance premiums were 10.0858 trillion won.
Meanwhile, the number of newborns continues to decline. Last year, the number of births was 246,579, a 5.76% decrease from the previous year. As the low birthrate trend continues, the number of birthing institutions also decreased by 2.67%. Only 474 birthing institutions remain nationwide.
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