President Yoon scraps ‘Moon Jae-in care’ policy

President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to scrap the “Moon Jae-in care” policy, the initiative under the former administration to expand health insurance coverage, by saying, “Renovating health insurance policy is not a choice but a must.” Following his strong response to the Cargo Truckers Solidarity’s nationwide strike as a signal for labor reforms, President Yoon is signaling reform on several fronts, including in the healthcare sector, by publicly announcing to repeal the Moon Jae-in care policy.

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Yoon criticized the former administration’s health insurance policy by saying that it is urgent to normalize the health insurance scheme, which is the last bastion of protecting the people’s health. “The former administration spent more than 20 trillion won for five years to expand coverage of health insurance, but it made medical services to be misused and overlooked free riders of the health insurance scheme. The costs are burdened by the people,” President Yoon said. “Populist policies lead to the wasteful spending of government money. This will undermine the backbone of health insurance and ultimately require the people to make a huge sacrifice.”

President Yoon vowed to pursue labor reform to protect ‘the labor weak’ by mentioning recommendations made by the Future Labor Market Study Association, an expert group dedicated to the government’s labor reform.

The Democratic Party of Korea immediately resisted President Yoon’s initiative to repeal the Moon Jae-in care policy. The main opposition party’s Policy Committee Chief Kim Sung-hwan urged the Yoon administration not to abandon its responsibility to protect people’s right to health.


Kwan-Seok Jang jks@donga.com · Dong-Jun Heo hungry@donga.com