Catholic University of Korea Reports Findings in Health Services (How public and private health insurance coverage mitigates catastrophic health expenditures in Republic of Korea): Health and Medicine – Health Services

Education Daily Report

2022 AUG 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Education Daily Report -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Services is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The private health insurance (PHI) market in Republic of Korea has instituted indemnity insurance plans that provide partial reimbursements for some medical services or costs that are not covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI). To date, no study has estimated the extent to which PHI coverage lowers the economic burden of households’ access to health care.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Catholic University of Korea, “The current study aims to evaluate the design of Korea’s PHI system in terms of coverage using a catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) indicator and compare it with NHI. This study determined the difference between the number of households that were subscribed to PHI and those that received reimbursements from PHI. Additionally, it compared the effects of reduced CHE by NHI benefits with PHI reimbursements. Furthermore, it compared PHI reimbursements based on income class. Finally, it analyzed the contribution of NHI and PHI to CHE reduction through a two-part model with hierarchical regression. The results indicated that of the 5644 households examined, 3769 subscribed to PHI, but only 246 households received reimbursements. Notably, NHI reduced CHE incidence by 15.17%, whereas PHI only reduced CHE by 1.22%. The NHI scheme indicated reduced inequality as it provided more benefits to the low-income class for their used medical services, whereas PHI paid more reimbursements to the high-income class. Accordingly, NHI coverage has protected households from CHE and improved equality to some extent; however, PHI coverage has had a relatively low effect on relieving CHE and has increased inequality. The indemnity health insurance plans of PHI companies in Korea only cover partial medical costs or services, and so, most patients do not receive reimbursements.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Thus, Korea’s PHI system needs to improve to provide benefits to patients more generously and alleviate their financial burden.”

For more information on this research see: How public and private health insurance coverage mitigates catastrophic health expenditures in Republic of Korea. BMC Health Services Research, 2022;22(1):1042. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Young Dae Kwon, Dept. of Humanities and Social Medicine, College of Medicine and Catholic Institute for Healthcare Management, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Hyun Woo Jung and Jin-Won Noh.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08405-4. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMC Health Services Research is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.