South Korea’s Universal Health Care System
National Health Insurance (NHI) is South Korea’s public health care system. From 1977 to 1988, South Korea moved from a private, voluntary insurance program to government-mandated healthcare. InterNations, which identifies itself as the largest global community for people who live and work abroad, considers the Korean systems to be of “extremely high quality” and, as noted above, CEOWorld rates it the best system in the world. It is mandatory for all residents living in Korea for a period of six months or longer. It is a universal system, funded through payroll taxes, government subsidies, employer and employee contributions, and tobacco surcharges. Residents have the freedom to choose their own health care provider and facility. The NHI covers between 50 and 80 percent of the medical costs, including medical checkups, general procedures, accident coverage, and prescription medication. There is also a Medical Aid Program which is geared toward low-income individuals, who are exempt from copays and other charges.
Unlike the US, where about 18 percent of GDP goes to healthcare, South Korea invests 7.6 percent of its GDP on this important sector. Prescription prices are controlled by the government, resulting in drug prices that are less than half of what Americans pay. Infant mortality in South Korea and preventable mortality rate are both half of that in the US. Life expectancy in South Korea, as seen in the table above, is one of the highest in the world.
Further, South Korea received accolades for its response to the COVID pandemic, saving thousands of lives and serving as a model for the rest of the world. As reported in the medical journal The Lancet, beginning in February 2020, the South Korean government adopted “active epidemiological investigations, strict isolation of affected patients, and extensive public lockdowns, which were helpful in controlling spread until the end of 2021.” As a result, the mortality rate, 0.13 percent, was the lowest among the thirty countries with the highest case counts. “High vaccine coverage rate (87.7 percent), the efficient healthcare system, and active co-operation between private sectors and the central government seem to have contributed to this.” To put in another perspective, a writer from Connecticut familiar with the Korean healthcare system wrote that “though Korea’s population is fourteen times larger than Connecticut’s, it has suffered less than a quarter of the deaths of our state.”
Sources: “Health Insurance and Healthcare in South Korea Explained,” InterNations, n.d., https://www.internations.org/south-korea-expats/guide/healthcare#:~:text=Healthcare%20in%20South%20Korea%20is,Western%20and%20Eastern%20treatment%20options. Young Joo Song, “The South Korean Health Care System,” JMAJ (Japan Medical Association Journal) 52 (3) (2009): 206-209, https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2009_03/206_209.pdf. Global Health Blog of Professor Monica H. Swann, Georgia State University, “Beyond K-Pop: A Glimpse at South Koreas Healthcare System,” February 15, 2021, http://sites.gsu.edu/gsuglobalhealth/2021/02/15/beyond-k-pop-a-glimpse-at-south-koreas-healthcare-system/#:~:text=Though%20spending%20less%20on%20healthcare,–1.8%20and%205.7%2C%20respectively. Soo Lim and Minji Sohn, “How to Cope with Emerging Viral Diseases: Lessons from South Korea’s Strategy for VOCID-19, and Collateral Damage to Cardiometabolic Health, Viewpoint, The Lancet 30 (100581) (January 2023), https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(22)00196-1/fulltext#:~:text=From%20February%202020%2C%20the%20South,until%20the%20end%20of%202021. Sean Goldrick, “We Should Follow South Korea’s Example of How to Provide a Nation with Healthcare,” CT Mirror, May 6, 2020, https://ctmirror.org/2020/05/06/we-should-follow-south-koreas-example-of-how-to-provide-a-nation-with-healthcare/.
