Medical costs to treat senior citizens double in 7 years

According to the 2017 National Health Insurance Statistics Annual Report, jointly published by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the National Health Insurance Service, the amount spend on medical treatment for senior citizens in Korea last year amounted to 28.32 trillion won, which is 40.9 percent of the overall medical insurance costs of 69.34 trillion won. This means that health insurance costs for senior citizens, which are 13.4 percent of Korea’s population, take up almost half of the total cost.

The annual average costs spend on medical treatment for each senior citizen reached 4.25 million, a record high. It reached the 4 million won threshold for the first time since surpassing 3 million won, reaching 3.076 million won, five years ago in 2012. The figure is also nearly three times higher than the national insurance costs per capita (1.39 million won) last year.


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