President Kim Yong-ik of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) (Photo: NHIS)

President Kim Yong-ik of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) brushed aside concerns over exacerbating health insurance finance issues caused by the expansion of the coverage of medical services under “President Moon’s care scheme.”

Moon’s care scheme, put in place two years ago, means more medical services are covered by the national health insurance system, easing the burden of people’s medical costs.

But political and medical circles claim that Moon’s scheme has spawned problems such as worsening of health insurance finances, patients rushing to bigger hospitals and an upsurge in medical coverage costs caused by a jump in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Insurance coverage for MRIs was launched under the scheme. NHIS President Kim flatly rejected the idea that the national health insurance finances are worsening.

Health insurance expenditures shot up this year in accordance with the implementation of the scheme, and about 10 trillion won is predicted to be spent, he said. But concluding that health insurance finances are worsening is not accurate, President Kim said.

In the case of long-term insurance facilities such the national pension fund, fiscal forecasts are deemed to be relatively precise. There is no cost leakage of the national health insurance program, President Kim said. President Kim stressed that doctors and medical institutions need to join forces to reduce health insurance costs.

He also called for medical circles to rationalize health insurance expenditures.

In this regard, meaningful moves have been made, including recent measures to preempt wasted health insurance expenditures.

As the nation enters into an era of a low-birth rate and aging society, gloomy outlooks have been mounting that a reduction in the working age population would have a bad impact on securing tax revenues to finance Korea’s health insurance premiums.

The government has left no stone unturned to try to reverse the low birth rate, but policies related to such moves have not worked.

In an immediate case, a rise in medical costs, caused by an increase in the elderly population, and a drop in tax payout population are predicted to deliver a severe blow to health insurance finances.

As to the topic, President Kim said he believed that aging society could be solved through health care. An increase rate of aging population has something to do with the increase speed of healthy elderly people.

Maxing out working age population among the elderly and earning their income could fix tax revenue shortages, he noted.

The national health insurance plans to pursue lifetime health care so that working population among the elderly can increase, and to this end, he said the NHIS will devote itself to caring for patients suffering from chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

As to rushing patients to bigger hospitals and an upsurge in some medical services and MRI scans under Moon’s care scheme, President Kim said the scheme should be ultimately implemented along with fiscal regime and supply regime reforms.

A surge in MRI scans among the insured has sent medical authorities hurrying over to look into MRI scans, particularly whether healthy people underwent them. Such phenomena have something to do with gaps in the medical delivery system in which the government is striving to reduce.

As the implementation of Moon’s care, he said, non-coverage categories, carrying higher medical costs and greater medical needs, are shifting into insurance coverage ones.

He stressed “unshakable implementation of Moon’s care so that the collapse of households, caused by excessive medical costs, can be prevented and proper care can be given.

As to the sustainable health insurance, President Kim stressed a shift in people’s patterns of using medical institutions, saying that people need to abstain from overuse and excessive less use.

People’s patterns have exacerbated management of clinics and small hospitals, which may have a negative impact on the payment of the health insurance service, he added.