Rep. Song Seog-jun of the Liberty Korea Party speaks at a forum on how to overhaul a feasibility study system at the National Assembly Building.

Rep. Song proposed a revision bill of the Act on the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) that would pave the way for the NHIS’s implementation of projects to promote health.

The bill, whose legislation is led by Rep. Song, was approved during a plenary session of the National Assembly on Feb. 20. 

Under current law, the Act on the National Health Insurance Service, Article 14, Clause 1, No. 4 & No. 13 allows the NHIS’s implementation of health promotion projects, but lacks the specifics of the implementation of the provision. 

The revision bill would lay a legal groundwork for the NHIS’s implementation of health promotion projects and the specifying of enforcement via presidential order to fill the legal gap of the current law. 

Rep. Song said, “Health promotion projects play such significant roles in preventing people’s diseases and promoting their health through education on health, consulting and health promotion programs.” Song said he expected the passage of the revision bill to bring benefets for health practically to health insurance subscribers and their dependents by implementing health promotion projects in a stable fashion.

Lawmakers on hand at a forum on how to overhaul a feasibility study system, including Rep. Song Seog-jun, gesture during the event. (Photos: Rep. Song Seog-jun’s Office)

Bill Would Grant Grandparents a Childcare Allowance

Parents might be eligible to receive a financial benefit in return for taking care of their grandchildren. Rep. Song Seog-jun of the Liberty Korea Party proposed a measure to allow parents earning less than a certain level of income to receive a financial benefit for caring for or raising their grandchildren. 

Under current law, qualified babysitters and babysitting institutions are allowed to provide services for caring for children of working couples. But the reality is that working couples who cannot leave their kids with qualified babysitters and babysitting institutions have to entrust them to unqualified babysitters or grandparents, and in that case, they have to shoulder all the costs on their own.

A revision bill of the Act on the Support of Babysitting would designate grandparents as babysitters when parents’ care is not available due to employment, and they could be required to register with city majors or governors. The measure would allow for those registered grandparents to be granted an allowance, the value of which would vary according to their grandchildren’s age and the number children. State and provincial autonomous governments would pay the allowance. The bill would impose a one-year or less prison term or a 10 million won fine for those convicted of cheating the system. 

Explaining the background of the revision bill, Rep. Song said, “The measure is designed to solve problems related to the low-birth rate, guarantee incomes in an aging society, and restore the family’s function of raising children.”

Rep. Song, sitting on the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, led the tabling of the legislation on Feb. 2. Also participating in the legislation are Reps. Choi Do-ja; Chung Sung-ho; Um Yong-soo; Ahn Sang-soo; Kim Jung-hoon; Lee Hun-seung; Ryu Ki-joon; and Gyeong Dae-soo. 

Rep. Song also served on the House Steering Committee and the Special Committee on Budge & Accounts.