Urgent Countermeasures Needed for the Opening of Medical Market

As `Doha Development Agenda (DDA)` went into effect, `DDA Health and Welfare Division Committee`, a private incorporated organization that will prepare to meet the requests from advanced industrialized nations to open up the market, is to be established on the 15th. Korea Health Industry Development Institute president Chang Yim-Won is the chairperson and the organization consists of 23 members. 3 Governmental representatives from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Korea Food & Drug Administration, and 20 private representatives are to participate. Medical Association, Hospital Association, Nurse Association, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, and Pharmaceutical Association are also participating on the private level. DDA is the title for the new negotiations decided at the World Trade Organization (WTO) cabinet conference in Doha, Qatar last November. It is expected to settle the issues by January 1, 2005.

Issues-

Advanced nations like U.S.A. are expected to request Korea to open up its service sector and expand market access, and such requests may create shockwaves in the Korean medical world. Although it depends on the results of negotiations, there is possibility for medical personnel changes, or medical welfare-related investments so that U.S. doctors may work in Korean hospitals or authorized Chinese herbalists may open and manage hospitals in Korea. Also, depending on the negotiations results, domestic patients may be treated in U.S.A. under the benefit of domestic health insurance, and wholesale and retail foreign medical franchises may open their business in Korea.

Countermeasures-

The reason that the government established the private incorporation committee is to reflect the opinions of related business world and scholars before such important negotiations which may greatly change the situation in the domestic medical world. Under the committee, 2 subdivisions of service field and industrial products market approach field will also be made. They will examine request matters for negotiation and reinforcement plans in the fields that have great potentials for opening.

Negotiation Schedule-

The government is to prepare `request agendas` that includes details for requesting each nation to open medical service fields within the year’s first half. Also by next March, a `mutual permission plan` will be prepared with details of the opening of domestic service field. A full- scale negotiation will be held after the 5th WTO cabinet conference, which might open during 2003. Until the negotiation deadline which is the end of the year 2004, the government will hold mutual and group negotiations with medical pioneers like the U.S. and the European Union (EU).

hanscho@donga.com