Alleviating Health Insurance Fund Depletion
Preventing Medical Shopping by Tightening Dependent Criteria for Foreign Subscribers
Strengthening from 6 Months to 2 Years
On May 25, Lee Junseok, the presidential candidate of the Reform Party, pledged to secure health insurance finances by tightening the criteria for excessive medical use subject to a 90% copayment rate from more than 365 outpatient visits per year to more than 120 visits per year.
The Reform Party's election campaign headquarters announced on this day that it would expand the implementation of a differentiated copayment system with these details, in order to prevent unnecessary and excessive use of medical services and to alleviate the depletion of health insurance funds, thereby securing sustainable health insurance finances.
As of last year, the number of patients who received outpatient treatment more than 120 times a year was about 352,000, and the health insurance funds spent on them amounted to approximately 3.0936 trillion won.
However, exceptions will be made for children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, patients with rare and intractable diseases, and patients with severe illnesses, if the Minister of Health and Welfare recognizes unavoidable circumstances.
In addition, Lee pledged to prevent "medical shopping" by short-term foreign subscribers by tightening the criteria for recognizing dependents of foreign health insurance subscribers from six months to two years.
A representative of the campaign headquarters stated, "In order to provide stable medical services to the future generations of Korea, excessive medical use must be restricted," and added, "We will restore the financial soundness of health insurance to ensure continuous medical services and strengthen coverage for patients with severe illnesses."
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