Forecast of Dark Clouds over Medicine-Pharmacy-Government again

Shin Sang-Jin, new chairperson of the Korea Medical Association (KMA), said at the press conference on Saturday right after his election that ``the KMA will re-examine the failed policy on the separation of medicine from pharmacy, and will actively propose the policy alternative regarding the wrong health insurance system.`` His statement is likely to create a huge stir in the medicine-pharmacy-government relation.

Joo Soo-Ho, the former spokesperson of the KMA, said that ``this means that the discussion should be started from the beginning again since the current system of separation of medicine from pharmacy is a failed policy.`` ``With regard to the health insurance finance, if only the measure to reduce the expenditure is pushed forward, it will bring about the damage to doctors. Therefore, measures to increase the earnings should be considered together.`` said Joo.

Shin did not exclude the possibility of group action by saying that ``this is a time that requires a strong struggle against the government`s low quality policy, such as the issuing of two prescriptions for outpatient, submission of the drug list, and unequal medical charge contract, and against the retaliatory attempt to revise the law retrogressively.``

In relation to this, an official of the KMA said that ``this election has a characteristic of denouncing the former executives who forcibly confirmed the medicine-pharmacy-government dialogue that was unreasonable. Most members want to show the united power of the medical circle through the strong leadership.``

This official also added that ``although the dialogue with the government is necessary to solve the various issues, the KMA may not acknowledge the Ministry of Health and Welfare as a dialogue partner if the Ministry continues to condemn medical doctors as immoral group while not keeping the existing promises.``

Kim Joon-Seok kjs359@donga.com