The two leading presidential candidates and their camps exchanged verbal battles during the Lunar New Year holiday over foreign residents’ health insurance coverage.On Sunday, Yoon Suk-yeol, the standard-bearer of the conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP), said he would strengthen the reg
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from the ruling Democratic Party, recently announced that he would allow national health insurance to cover hair loss treatment, wooing young voters in their 20s and 30s suffering from thinning hair. His election pledge has been evaluated as the most popular
Korea will hold the presidential election, the most important event in politics, in 2022. The presidential election is an important momentum that determines the major policy direction for the next five years.In the healthcare sector, the two main goals – enhancing insurance benefits for better healt
The total income of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) reached 79 trillion won ($66.8 billion) in 2021. About 60 percent of them are spent as reimbursements to compensate for medical services. The health insurance reimbursement system has been developed according to each country’s circumst
Korea operates a national health insurance program. All Korean nationals are obligated to subscribe to it and pay insurance premiums set by the government.Under this system, insured people pay premiums differentially according to their incomes and assets, and the nation provides them with equal medi
Director of Myongji Hospital’s Dementia Care Center and Brain BankThe government began selecting a dementia brain bank in 2016, and it picked Myongji Hospital as the nation’s fourth hospital to run a dementia brain bank in March 2021.The other three hospitals operating a government-designated dement
The Korean government will consider introducing a “preferential drug pricing system” to support innovative pharmaceutical companies.Although the system had a legal basis, the government has not introduced it because it posed a trade dispute risk. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it w
The Covid-19 pandemic has been resurging since last month. As the number of confirmed cases increased sharply, the planned easing of social distancing has been shelved. Moreover, the Delta variant has become the most dominant strain in Korea (Fig. 1).However, unlike the past three viral waves, the n
Politicians’ intervention in the nation’s anti-coronavirus fight has made a breach in its quarantine net. However, they don’t work out measures but blame others.A case in point is the Covid-19 self-diagnosis kits based on rapid antigen tests. Despite warnings from experts who pointed out that self-t
Developing innovative health technologies is very important because they can extend human life by broadening the scope of medicine, improve the quality of life for patients, and provide an opportunity to foster new industries.New health technologies can help Korea advance in healthcare services and
Nearly one in 10 Koreans has moderate or serious diabetes. Concerns and warnings -- that the number will keep rising because of unhealthy diet and lifestyles -- are nothing new.Diabetes has become so common that people misunderstand they know diabetes well.However, there are many different types of
On Saturday night, Haeundae Beach, the major tourist spot in Busan, was in commotion as visitors set off firecrackers and held parties without wearing masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic.t turned out that the unrest was due to the rave party held by United States Forces Korea (USFK) and other foreigner
Health insurance is essential to protect people’s lives and health, but every country has a different system. Countries have their own health insurance systems that have developed based on different environments and histories. While many countries, including the U.S. and some European countries, all
Program Associate of Investment Management Team at the Research Investment for Global Health Technology (RIGHT) FundGlobal health is a growing priority for Korea’s international cooperation agenda as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted its well-executed pandemic response, providing opportunities f
On July 6, 1885, a laboratory in Paris where Louis Pasteur worked had a visitor. It was a nine-year-old boy who was bit by a mad dog. Named Joseph from Alsace, France, the boy was in critical condition after being severely attacked by the crazed dog two days earlier. At the time, infection with rabi
The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus complimented the K-pop group BTS for showing positive notes and hope for overcoming the Covid-19.The WHO chief also congratulated the boy band on naming as the TIME magazine’s “Entertainer of the Year 2020.”Ghebreyesus said, “
I recently received a request from several embassies, including the British, Norwegian, and Danish Embassy, to introduce Korea’s digital healthcare industry.The foreign embassies’ interest in Korea’s digital healthcare must have grown, particularly after the nation’s successful response to Covid-19
The writer is professor at the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.The clash between the government and the medical community over the issue of increasing doctors does not seem to be resolved at any time soon.I graduated from a medical school and obtained a medical license but I am not a clinician. This is why I decided t
The writer is the executive editor of The Korea Doctors’ Weekly, the sister paper of Korea Biomedical Review.—Ed. The recent series of strikes by physicians are different from those two decades ago in many ways. First, the complexity of the issue is different. In 2000, the core issue was separating the drug prescribing from drug dispensing but setting details were complicated. Specifi
Recently, a doctor who left Korea and headed to the United States for a long time ago expressed his frustration over the Korean government's medical policy and sent a column to the Korea Biomedical Review. Professor Kang Hyun-seok, the author of the article, graduated from Yonsei University Medical College. He completed an internal medicine residency at a hospital affiliated with Columbia Universi