Moon Jae-in Care needs speed control

Depletion of National Health Insurance’s accumulated Reserves

KEF held a debate under the theme of ‘National Health Insurance, Sustainable?’

Excessive financial input into the medical sector, weak growth potential national competitiveness

There were voices of concern that the government's policy to strengthen health insurance guarantees could weaken domestic economic growth potential and national competitiveness.

 

The Korea Employers Federation (Chairman of KEF, Kyung-sik Sohn) held a session on the 19th to evaluate the 1st National Health Insurance Comprehensive Plan (2019 ~ 2023) under the theme of 'National Health Insurance, Sustainable?'.

 

The debate was held in the public's concern about the financial crisis of health insurance due to the overlap of policy factors such as increased measures to the medical use due to aging.

 

In the past 10 years (2008 ~ 2018), Korea's medical expenses growth rate is 6.9% per year, three times the OECD average of 2.3%, and the fastest rate among 36 member countries.

 

In the case of National Health Insurance, which accounts for the largest proportion of medical expenditures, which have increased by 8% every year for the past five years (2014 ~ 2018), are expected to increase by more than 13% this year.

 

Yong-geun Kim, the Vice President of the KEF, said, “Recently, medical expenditures are rapidly increasing, which raises the public's concern about the financial crisis of health insurance, at the current rate of increase in medical expenses, it will soon become a factor that weakens growth potential and national competitiveness as excessive national resources are put into the medical sector”.

 

Mr.

 

Kim said, “Expansive radical guarantees will entail excessive insurance premiums, which will eventually lead to a vicious cycle of lowering private investment and consumption and reducing economic vitality, and it needed to adjust the speed of security measures”.

 

The government plans to raise the rate of health insurance premiums by 3.2% annually to cover the cost of expanding the coverage, but this also means that in the era of low growth with an economic growth rate of around 2%, the burden on the people and businesses is beyond.

 

Mr.

 

Kim said, “Companies paying 43% of the total health insurance income cannot afford to pay premiums anymore due to the deteriorated business environment and poor performance, we need to focus on improving fiscal soundness by rationally improving health care spending while minimizing premium rate hikes”.

 

He also called for a full reform of the health insurance system to make more efficient use of limited resources, and he cited the resolution of moral hazards in the medical field, revitalization of private insurance subscribers, the introduction of incentives for reducing medical expenses, the expansion of comprehensive budget system, the reduction of drug costs, and the introduction of the primary doctor's system.

 

In addition, he urged a preemptive reform of the committee's operating system so that the opinions of companies (labor-management) and community members who are responsible for health insurance can be reflected in a greater proportion.

 

Professor Hee-kyun Yang, Kyung Hee University, who was in charge of the first presentation, predicted that the burden of subscribers would increase because there is no way to solve the overuse of medical services due to the expansion of the guarantee coverage.

 

Therefore, in case of excessive anticipated medical use (MRI, ultrasound, anticancer drugs, treatment materials, etc.) and services (elderly outpatient’s flat sum system, copayment limit, long-term hospitals, upper ward benefits) The government said that it is necessary to prepare a management plan for discounts and surcharges.

 

As a plan to alleviate the phenomena of large hospitals, it was required to establish a four-stage medical delivery system (clinics-hospitals-advanced hospitals-nationalwide hospitals), including the establishment of a nationwide hospital using the total contract method.

 

The second speaker, Seong-in Chang, a professor at Yonsei University, predicted that the cumulative reserves, which amounted to ₩20.8 trillion in 2017, will be exhausted in 2022.

 

Professor Chang said, “To secure financial health of health insurance, we must break away from the stereotype of solving all things with one health insurance and establish a hybrid medical security system that properly connects social security and market economy principles, we need to consider introducing a lifetime health account that manages parts as an individual account”.

 

Seok-yong Chang, a professor of Eulji University, the third speaker, pointed out that despite the establishment of the 1st National Health Insurance Comprehensive Plan, there is still no high-level health development plan.

 

Professor Chang said, “As the rules of the game need to be carefully reviewed, we need a social consensus on strengthening the representation and professionalism of members and the formation of public interest committees in decision governance such as the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee and the Financial Steering Committee, and considering the enormous amount of financial operations, it is necessary to establish a pre-control mechanism of the National Assembly”.