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National Health Insurance Corporation Income Report Differs from Actual Earnings

National Health Insurance Corporation Income Report Differs from Actual Earnings

Posted May. 15, 2005 23:13,   

한국어

Ophthalmologists earn the highest level of income among professional businessmen.

According to the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC)’s “2004 Professional Businessmen Health Insurance Payment Report,” submitted on May 15 to Rep. Moon Byung-ho of the Uri Party, a member of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly, ophthalmologists earn an average of 11.54 million won a month, the largest amount among 26 profession types surveyed.

The report surveyed 1,085 ophthalmologists nationwide, 439 of which, or 38 percent, earned over 10 million won a month.

Also among the top 10 earners were attorneys (10.89m won), surgeons (9.93m won), ear, nose, and throat doctors (7.63m won), radiologists (7.51m won), and patent attorneys (7.42m won). Eight out of the top ten earners are doctors, showing once again that the medicine field is one of the highest earning professions.

Customs administrators (5.04m won), pharmacists (4.54m won), tax accountants (4.48m won), and accountants (4.08) were some of the other top earners.

However, this data only surveyed the income of professional businessmen who were enrolled in workplace health insurance policies. Critics therefore say the data is incomplete and insufficient to understand incomes of all professions.

As of late last year, 95.3 percent of medical practitioners and 94.5 percent of legal practitioners were registered for workplace health insurance.

Lawmaker Moon said, “According to the corporation’s data, there were some things about the surveyed income that were incomprehensible. The NHIC needs to act rigorously to prevent high earners from evading taxes.”



Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com