Lee proposes public med schools to fill gaps

On Tuesday, former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung announced plans to “adjust medical school quotas rationally” and “establish public medical schools to train healthcare personnel for public, essential and underserved areas.” The proposal includes determining the scale of expansion in consultation with the upcoming Medical Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee, expected to launch as early as next month, and assigning new graduates to the public healthcare sector.

Announcing his healthcare policy pledges, Lee said, “The medical crisis has caused suffering for everyone,” emphasizing the need to “start again from a social consensus involving all stakeholders.” He added, “We will strengthen public healthcare by reducing regional disparities and expanding support for local hospitals, developing them into hubs for public medical services.”

Lee said the final quota for medical school expansion would be based on recommendations from the estimation committee under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. A portion of the new slots would be allocated to public medical schools, which would receive full government funding. Graduates would be required to serve for a set period in local public hospitals, veterans hospitals or military hospitals. The state would increase support for these facilities to grow them into core institutions for public health services.

The Democratic Party believes that by limiting public medical school graduates to work in the public sector, the plan would help avoid an excessive focus on non-essential fields such as cosmetic medicine and ease pushback from the medical community. However, critics warn that the initiative could reignite conflict between the government and physicians. A similar effort under the Moon Jae-in administration in 2020 was withdrawn after facing strong resistance, including a doctors’ strike.


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