Gov`t “To Force the Merger of the Health Insurance Finance“

The government announced that it would enforce the merger of the health insurance finance beginning on January 1st, if the revised bill that separates the regional health insurance from the workplace health insurance is not passed by the plenary session of the National Assembly within this year regardless of the passage of the bill at the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly by the Grand National Party (GNP) alone. Thus, the dispute between the ruling and opposition party is intensifying.

Head presidential secretary Oh Hong-Keun said yesterday, "The project of the merger of the health insurance finance cannot be halt since it has cost 100 billion won so far. The government will enforce the merger of the health insurance finance beginning on January 1st according to the existing law that was made by the agreement between the ruling and opposition party."

Senior Secretary to the President for Welfare and Labor Lee Tae-Bok also repeatedly said that the government would implement the merger of the health insurance finance beginning on January 1st. In response to the issue raised by the opposition party that the income of the regional health insurance subscribers was not fully assessed, he said that "the assessment rate of the income of the regional health insurance subscribers is 34 percent now. The government will increase it to 40 percent. The insistence that the premium of the regional health insurance is lower than that of the workplace health insurance is not convincing."

In response to this, the GNP spokesperson Nam Kyung-Pil urged the government and the ruling party to "reserve the implementation of the merger of the health insurance finance until the issue is solved at the National Party." saying "it is an irresponsible attitude for the government to say that it would enforce the merger of the health insurance finance if the revised bill is not passed at the National Assembly within this year."

The GNP floor leader Lee Jae-Oh also said, "The party would make an effort for the passage of the revised bill at the plenary session of the National Assembly before the end of the year." "The passage of the bill at the National Assembly within this year is unclear since the United Liberal Democrat has not made yet its own stance." added Lee.

However, the Millennium Democratic Party spokesperson Lee Nak-Yeon said, "The GNP forced the passage of the bill that separates the health insurance finance into two at the Health and Welfare Committee even by replacing the lawmakers of the committee. And, the GNP said it would get an Assembly vote next February. This is an irresponsible bragging of power that only increases confusion in a situation where the merger of the health insurance finance is going to take place within a week."

Jeong-Hun Kim ysmo@donga.com