Health insurance system revamp ahead

South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare announced recently a plan to overhaul the national health insurance scheme to reduce the fees for the low-income earners and hike those for the wealthy.

The proposal’s main beneficiaries will be about six million households — mostly self-employed — who will see their monthly insurance premium reduce by half. Some 730,000 high-income earners or high-asset holders will have to endure higher premiums. Ordinary salaried workers with no major assets will see no change, states a report by The Korea Herald.

“Some six million insurance holding households will see monthly insurance premium down by an average of KRW46,000 (USD40),” explained the ministry official Lee Chang-joon.

The envisioned new scheme seeks to plug loopholes in the current three-basis subscription system, which categorises subscribers into the employed, the self-employed and the dependent.

Criticism has mounted on the flaws of the segment of the self-employed.

The new plan will seek to gauge a subscriber’s comprehensive financial status by taking into account their holdings of financial and non-financial assets on top of their reported salaries.

The plan, to be implemented gradually in three stages through 2024, requires amendment of the related law.

The ministry said it plans to inject KRW20 trillion into the healthcare services and work closely with related authorities to seek fiscal health.