Health Insurance in Korea

These days a lot of people are talking about health care reform, and looking at other countries of what works and what doesn't. I wanted to share a bit of my experience with health insurance coverage in both Korea and the U.S. The U.S. people are looking overseas for examples of the national health care systems that might work well. Strangely, the current Korean government are hoping to copy the American system by allowing private sector in the health insurance market.

Here's a table showing the forms of health care coverage used by the Korean people. Some people get health insurance through employment where your employer pays 50% of the cost and you pay the other half. The cost is 5.08% of your salary. If you are self-employed or live in a less developed part of the country, you pay based on your income and property. And if you make not much money, you are covered by the government.

(As of 2007. 12. 31)

Types		Population (thousands)	%
National Health Insurance	employee insured	29,420	59.2
	self-employed insured	18,400	37.1
	subtotal	47,820	96.3
Korean “Medicaid”	A type	1060	2.1
	B type	790	1.6
	subtotal	1850	3.7
Total		49,670	100

(http://www.mohw.go.kr)

The Korean National Health Insurance Program only covers necessary medical services including dental treatment. It doesn’t cover aesthetic treatment mostly in dentistry and dermatology.

I have two forms of health insurance. One is the national health insurance as a dependent of my parents (it doesn’t matter how old you are), and the other is through a private injury insurance company. You have to buy injury insurance by paying $20+ monthly for 10-20 years depending on the program you are enrolled. My parents signed up for me just in case I get badly hurt or die abroad. My beneficiary will get about $100,000 if I die or I will get tens of thousands of dollars if I get disabled while I pay the monthly fee. You will get certain percentage of the money you have put in when it matures. I assume I would get nearly all that I (my parents) put in back, otherwise my parents wouldn’t have done it.

It doesn’t cost much to see a doctor in Korea. It costs less than $10 to see a specialist, and cold medicine (different types of pills for each packet) for a week costs about $5-7. Insurance doesn’t cover some medicine for rare disease. One thing I don’t like is the “selective treatment” which allows patients to choose a physician to see with a fee. In the U.S., you see either whoever is available at the time or the doctor you want to see with no additional cost. In Korea, if you choose a doctor to see, you are charged $10 for it. But, sometimes you have to “choose” the doctor you saw last time for a follow-up, you don’t have any other option and still pay extra. Some years ago, I had to see an internal medicine doctor at a mid-sized hospital in my neighborhood. There was only one internal medicine doctor working at that hospital and the receptionist “chose” the doctor for me. I don’t mind paying extra to see good doctors but why do I need to pay $10 when there’s no options to choose? Hospitals try to get more money out of patients for doctor visits or medicine sales with loopholes because they can’t make enormous amount of money under the current health insurance program, and the government tries to find out unjust us

age of the system mostly when claims are filed by patients. I wondered if the “selective treatment” fee should be applied in my case.

Here's what happens when you visit a hospital. You go to the reception desk, tell him/her which department you hope to visit. You will be given a form to fill out and when you are done, you hand out the form and your insurance card which lists the names of the family members insured by the same source (either through employment or government) and their SSNs. The last few years when I visited doctors in Korea, I found out that you don't need to bring the card because everything is computerized and they can search the insurance information by your SSN on their computer.

You will be given some paper forms and the doctor's name, and have to wait in front of the doctor's office. If you go to a doctor's clinic, you wait no more than 20 minutes. But many people want to see a doctor at a university hospital, where you have to wait for hours to get a 5 minute consultation (as far as I know, doctors are paid by the number of patients you see daily). I don't see much difference on visiting a doctor between Korea and the U.S. The only difference is whether you need to show the insurance card or not.