Premium for Employed Medical Insurance Surged by 11.7 Pct.

The premium of the customers of employed medical insurance will be raised by 9.0 percent or 11.7 percent next year. Local insurance customers who do not have properties or vehicles will benefit reduced premium.

Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the new enforcement ordinance and enforcement regulation of the Health Insurance Law yesterday.

Employed Customers: The rate of the employed customers` premium will increase from current 3.4 percent of the salary to 3.71 or 3.8 percent of it. The actual raise of the premium will be raised by 9.0 percent or 11.7 percent. The insurance premium of the employed customers had no limit until this year but it will be limited to 1,727,200 won, which is 30 times larger than the average monthly premium of the employed insurance customers, that is, 57,523 won. Consequently, high-income class who had paid from 1.72 to 8.10 million won will benefit lower premium.

Local Customers : Local customers who do not have properties or vehicles will not pay the premium for properties (1,800 won) and for vehicles (2,000 won). Therefore, about 3 million households of the low-income class, who do not have properties or vehicles, will pay the insurance premium reduced by 1,800 to 3,000 won.

3 million households who have vehicles will pay 1,100 won (Tico) to 7,700 (Limousine) per month in terms of the displacement. The maximum limit of the local customers` premium will be adjusted from 300,000 won to 1.1 million won.

Miscellaneous: the age of the minor dependents is adjusted to 19 from current 20. 19-year-old minor who has income must pay insurance premium independently.

Children and grand children who live with the insurance holders were acknowledged as dependents by now without considering their marital status, but by the new law, single children only will be acknowledged as dependents.

The criterion for the compensation system, which regulates to pay back half of the fee that the customer had paid for medical treatment over 30 days, was also adjusted from 1 million won to 1.2 million won.

fullmoon@donga.com