Almost 25,000 foreigners exploited the Korean healthcare system in the past three years, by paying low insurance premiums and getting reimbursement for expensive treatments and then leaving the country upon their completion.

For example, a Mongolian came to Korea in May 2015 and gained access to health insurance after paying a monthly premium of around of about 100,000 won ($88.8) for three months. Three months later, the Mongolian began receiving cancer treatment that lasted 241 days, only to go back to Mongolia upon completion of treatment.

The foreigner cost the government around 84.69 million won ($75,230), according to a report the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) submitted to Rep. Choi Do-ja of the opposition People’s Party for the parliament’s audit of the agency last week.

Such a practice, which officials referred to as the “health insurance dine and dash” by foreigners, is not an isolated incident, the report said.

The increasing number of foreigners temporarily digging into national health insurance funds to gain treatment has resulted in a budget deficit of insurance funds caused by foreigners to grow from 124.4 billion won in 2015 to 173.5 billion ($154 million) last year, the agency said.

The average cost of treatment for these foreigners was around 966,000 won ($858) last year, up from 906,000 won in 2015, the report said. A total of 24,773 such cases have been reported since 2015.

“The introduction of the ‘Mooncare', which calls for sharply expanded insurance coverage, is emphasizing the need to reduce the fund’s deficit. We must improve the system so that foreigners easily obtaining health insurance at the expense of Korean people and leaving the country do not occur repeatedly,” Rep. Choi said.

HIRA gives health insurance benefits to foreigners and overseas Koreans who have stayed in the country for at least three months, provided they pay the average monthly premiums.

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