Separation of pharmacy and clinic burdens people with W3.7 bil.

Increases in medical care and medicine charges following the controversial separation of the dispensary from the medical treatment will saddle the people with additional financial burden of 3.7437 trillion won, an opposition lawmaker claimed Sunday.

Rep. Yoon Yeo-Joon of the Grand National Party, a member of the National Assembly¡¯s Health and Welfare Committee, noted that the government raised medical charges twice before the implementation of the new system and twice again after it was implemented.

The government also plans to hike medical fees twice in the future for a total of six raises, bringing the total amount of new charges to 4,777.4 billion won, Rep. Yoon said.

Prior to the implementation of the new system, the government raised medical charges twice in the course of introducing the refunding system for the actual dealing prices of medicines as a preliminary step, making it compulsory for patients to purchase only those drugs prescribed by their doctors.

Considering the price of medicine dropped about 30.7 percent due to the refunding system for the actual dealing prices of medicines, the actual burden on the people will reach 3,743.7 billion, Rep. Yoon claimed.

The former minister of environment under former president Kim Young-Sam also said that the National Health Insurance Corporation is expected to suffer a deficit of 3,884.3 billion won in the coming two years, 1,326.6 billion won this year and 2,557.7 billion won next year.

Therefore, the corporation¡¯s reserve funds will record minus 1,641.8 billion won at the end of next year, resulting in a debt-ridden national health insurance system, he said.

He went on to say that regional health insurance is anticipated to record a deficit of 1,910.6 billion won by the end of next year. He noted that the premiums increased by 18.4 percent in May and will be hiked by a total of 78 percent on two further occasions - this month and in next July.

Therefore, regional medical insurance subscribers will have to bear a nearly 100-percent increase to their burden in just two years, and in this case the planned raises in premiums are expected to face serious opposition from the public, Rep. Yoon said.