Hospital Bill for Cancer Patients is 190,000 won per day.

An office worker surnamed Choi (45) was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL, M3) in May of last year, and was hospitalized in Wonju, Gangwon.

Choi, who chose chemotherapy instead of a bone-marrow transplant, had to pay 23,304,289 won, which comprised seven days of medical fees, including charges for transfusion of blood and blood platelet, checkup, injections and hospital accommodation.

According to the health insurance system, Mr. Choi was originally supposed to pay 10% of his medical fee, which was 2,330,000 won, since he was a patient with an advanced disease. However, he was made to pay 4,188,648 won.

The amount was cut down by 667,810 won as he had 178 blood donor’s official registration cards.

But, an optional hospital fee, which had not been applied to the health insurance, was added an extra 1,850,000 won.

It turned out that patients with cancer, which is the leading cause of death in Korea, pay medical bills four times as high as those of normal patients, because, unlike many other diseases, medical fees for cancer sufferers are not usually supported by health insurance.

An average medical fee for a day is 492,592 won, according to a research study on medical fees for the top ten most common cancers, including liver cancer, blood cancer and stomach cancer. The research was conducted by Dong-A Ilbo in collaboration with three big university hospitals – Kangnam St. Mary’s hospital, Seoul National University hospital and Shinchon Severance hospital.

On top of the fees, hospitals charge patients an average of 192,418won (39.1%) for medical treatment. Non-insurance charges (81.1%), which have not been applied to heath insurance, exceed the charges supported by the health insurance four-fold, and sometimes more.

Even though the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) made an announcement in January this year, ensuring insurance payouts for cancer patients who were diagnosed in 2005, it did not figure out the real patient share because it did not investigate the diseases which would not be subjected to health insurance.

Therefore, people cannot calculate how much money they should pay if they happen to develop cancer.

For example, according to the NHIC, a liver cancer patient should pay 46,935 won for a day, but the real medical treatment fee including non-insurance medical expense was 25,628 won, which was 5.3 times as much as that announcement by the NHIC.

Liver cancer patients pay the highest one-day medical fee of about 250,000 won. The next highest are thyroid cancer (about 220,000 won), prostate cancer (about 220,000 won) and breast cancer (about 210,000 won). Patients with pancreatic cancer pay roughly 120,000 won, which is the smallest charge of cancer. Patients suffering from the top ten most common cancers in the three hospitals averaged 13.5 days of hospital treatment.

pen@donga.com