After President Yoon Suk-yeol declared to throw away ‘Moon Care,” civic groups hit back, saying it was an attempt to reduce health insurance coverage.
“If President Yoon takes the lead in attacking health insurance, his government will not remain safe,” the Campaign Headquarters for Preventing Medical Privatization and Realizing Free Medical Care said in a news conference at People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy on Wednesday.
The government's claim that low self-burden causes patients’ moral hazard and overtreatment is fiction, it said. Overtreatment is due to the government’s creation of the situation where private medical institutions account for 95 percent of the total and maintain an act-based fee system. The problem is not patients but policies that encourage moral hazards of healthcare providers.
“To reduce overtreatment, we should increase public hospitals, control private health insurance, and reduce uninsured services,” the headquarters said. “The government's retreat from health insurance coverage signals patients to continue to rely on indemnity insurance, and, eventually, moving toward privatizing the medical industry.”
Commenting on the government’s plan to support essential care, the group described it as only a policy to benefit private hospitals heavily, suggesting a plan to expand public healthcare as an alternative.e
“The increase of fees for severe diseases, emergency care, childbirth, and pediatric care has been a failed policy over the past few decades," it said. “Even if the government expands compensation, it is difficult for hospitals to produce profits in these areas because they can do by increasing uninsured services. So, private hospitals don't invest in essential healthcare.”
The group pointed out that the Yoon government’s plan to give extensive benefits to private hospitals threatens health insurance’s sustainability. It does not solve problems but only swells hospitals’ revenue.
If it fails to increase public hospitals run by the need, not money, the government cannot solve the essential care problem,” the group said.
Noting that the government pushes a policy to reinvigorate private health insurance and reduce the workforce at existing public hospitals, the headquarters said, “We denounce the Yoon administration for aggravating the health insurance system and revitalizing the private insurance market. Unless the government withdraws the recent announcement, it must bear in mind that citizens will be infuriated.”