Reserve Funds, Local Disaster Budgets, and Health Insurance Finances
"Unnecessary Tax Expenditure... Urgent Need to Resolve Medical Conflict"
It has been revealed that at least 3.3 trillion won of public funds (including National Health Insurance) were spent last year due to the medical service gap crisis. The government's hasty policy implementation resulted in unnecessary fiscal outflow.
According to the analysis of data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service by Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Dogeol (Gwangju Dongnam-eul) on the 4th, the government injected a total of 204 billion won (128.5 billion won in March, 75.5 billion won in May) in reserve funds to maintain the emergency medical system during the medical service gap. This budget was used for duty allowances due to the mass departure of residents, personnel expenses for hiring new medical staff at advanced general hospitals, and allowances for military doctors and public health doctors dispatched to the field.
This year, the total budget for supporting residents amounts to 27.6831 trillion won, which includes items such as improving working conditions for residents, allowances for specialist instructors in education and training, and support for resident training allowances. However, if the medical service gap continues and the return of residents is delayed, most of this budget is at risk of going unused.
The government also utilized disaster management funds from local governments to respond to the medical service gap. In February last year, the government classified the "paralysis of national core infrastructure in the healthcare sector" as a disaster and instructed local governments to spend 48.4 billion won in disaster funds. As the medical service gap became prolonged, the government revised the enforcement decree at a Cabinet meeting in September, allowing local disaster funds to be used for hiring emergency room staff, supporting night and holiday allowances for medical personnel, and supporting emergency medical institutions. Local governments injected an additional 171.2 billion won.
The National Health Insurance Service also spent a massive amount of funds. A total of 1.349 trillion won was used to operate the emergency medical system. Health insurance funds were used for rapid transfer of emergency patients, quick assignment of critical patients, support for emergency room consultation fees, and emergency medical support during the Chuseok holidays. Since May last year, an average of 176 billion won has been spent each month, and the problem is that similar levels of health insurance spending are expected to continue every month as long as the current medical service gap is not resolved.
Additionally, to help resolve the management crisis of training hospitals whose medical income plummeted due to the medical service gap, 1.4844 trillion won in health insurance funds was paid in advance. This is the first time that health insurance funds have been paid in advance to medical institutions facing management difficulties due to a government policy failure.
Ahn stressed, "Unnecessary public funds are being spent due to the medical crisis caused by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration," and added, "Since even health insurance funds are being mobilized excessively, it is urgent to quickly reestablish the consultative body between the ruling and opposition parties to resolve the medical conflict and address the damage caused by the medical crisis."
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