Opposition Party Passed Health Insurance Revision Bill

The Grand National Party (GNP) passed yesterday health insurance revision bill, which separates health insurance for the employed from the other for the self-employed, at a plenary session of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly.

While the lawmakers of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and independent lawmakers were unattended, only 8 GNP lawmakers attended and voted for the revision bill.

However, the GNP plans not to pass the revision bill in the National Assembly within this year. Thus, the integration of health insurance funds, which takes effective beginning on January 1st, is likely to face confusion.

Rep. Yoon Yuh-Joon, an executive member of the Health and Welfare Committee, said that "Because the revision bill was passed at the standing committee, the government may not be able to proceed with the integration of health insurance funds until the revision bill is passed by the general meeting."

Prior to this, the GNP replaced Rep. Kim Hong-shin, who has been opposed to the party policy, with Rep. Park Hyuk-Kyu, and Rep. Kim began to stage a sit-in demonstration at the office of the National Assembly Hall.

Regarding this, the MDP spokesperson Lee Nak-Yeon criticized saying "the enforced passage of the revision bill is another regression of reform, which even does not represent the interest of a few people. This will waste tens of billions of won of health insurance by raising problems such as reduced human resources, integration of computation, and the managing fee."

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com