President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech at an event to report the achievements of the government’s policy of expanding health insurance coverage on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the initiative at Cheong Wa Dae on Aug. 12. (Photo on the courtesy of the website of Cheong Wa Dae)

Under President Moon Jae-in government’s policy of expanding health insurance coverage, 37 million people saved 9.2 Trillion won in medical expenses for the past four years.

The initiative, dubbed “Moon Jae-in Care,” has been a success, with the rate of health insurance coverage at top hospitals, with many serious disease patients and the underprivileged, approaching 70 percent.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) announced major achievements regarding the expansion of health insurance coverage on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the introduction of the Moon Jae-in Care on Aug. 12.

In an event marking the anniversary on the same day, President Moon said, “Moon Jae-in Care is one of the policies being highly evaluated by people.”

“The government has made efforts to strengthen the health insurance coverage with a focus on serious diseases such as cancers with huge medical cost burden,” the President said.

The government came up with the Moon Jae-in Care in August 2017, calling for shifting non-coverage medical care into coverage categories, and dramatically lowering the medical costs of the underprivileged, including the elderly, children, women and low-income earners.

People had their medical cost burden reduced. The fix targeted the “Big Three” non-benefit categories; selective medical care costs; premium hospital room fees and attendance allowances.

The selective medical cost system was abolished as the health insurance coverage was expanded to two- and three-bed rooms of hospital-level medical institutions.

Non-benefit categories necessary for medical care, such as ultrasounds and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations, have been covered by Moon Jae-in Care on a gradual stage to reduce people’s medical costs.

Thanks to these steps, top-tier general hospitals saw the rate of health insurance coverage surge from 65.1 percent in 2017 to 69.5 percent in 2019.

Hospital-level institutions also saw the figure soar from 3.8 percent to 66.7 percent during the same period.
The medical cost burden for the underprivileged has been lowered.

The hospitalization copayment rate for children aged under 15 have been lowered from between 10 and 20 percent to 5 percent, while the outpatient copayment rate of premature babies and low-weight babies has been cut to 10 percent for those aged less than 36 moths, and to 5 percent for those aged less than 60 months.

Medical costs for tooth correction for treating cleft lip and palate fell from 35 million won to 7.3 million won.

The elderly has had the copayment rate for treating serious dementia and false teeth & implant care cut from 20 percent to 60 percent, to 10 percent and from 50 percent to 30 percent, respectively.

Medical procedures for infertile women became the subject of reimbursement. The health insurance coverage rate of babies aged less than 5 rose from 66.8 percent in 2017 to 69.4 percent what that of the elderly aged 65 or more increased from 68.8 percent to 70.7 percent during the same period.

In order to strengthen the medical safety net, the copayment cap of people in the lower 50 percent bracket has been lowered to the levels of 10 percent of their annual income, leading to the expanded refund.