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Patients Will Have to Pay More 50% out of Their Pocket at Clinics

Patients Will Have to Pay More 50% out of Their Pocket at Clinics

Posted November. 07, 2002 23:09,   

한국어

The Medical Insurance system will be changed in the near future. Thus, if a patient visits a clinic for minor illnesses such as the flu, the patient has to pay more out of his/her own pocket, but pay less for the medical treatment he/she receives for severe diseases.

According to the proposal announced on Nov. 7th by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, if a medical bill at a clinic is \15,000 (approximately $12) or less, the patient will have to pay \4,500 as opposed to the current \3,000 from next year. If the bill comes to more than that amount, the patient should pay for 30% of the total at the same kind of medical institutions.

The institute also proposes alternatives to the suggestion. One of the alternatives imposes \3,000 on the patient if the bill with a clinic reaches up to \10,000. For the amount exceeding that, the patient has to share 30% of the total amount charged. Under the other alternative, a patient has to pay for 30% of the total medical cost without any cutoff line.

These measures are conceived in response to the criticism that the current Medical Insurance system imposes a higher burden on the patient for minor diseases, while the systems support less the patients who suffer from severe ones.

If the proposal gets adopted, an outpatient has to pay for 32.7 – 41.7% of the bill in the future. Currently, an outpatient shares 31.6% of the total bill. On May 31 of this year, Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it would decrease the medical coverage to 70% from next year for the treatments at clinics.

The institute recommends that by cutting down on the medical coverage for clinic patients, the ministry could increase the coverage for patients suffering from severe diseases such as cancer since the bills for the latter are expensive.

Considering all the opinions including the proposal by the institute, the ministry will revise the Enforcement Regulations for Health Insurance Act, and implement a new coverage policy from next year.



Sang-Keun Song songmoon@donga.com