Starting in the first half of 2024, health insurance will be applied to treatment costs for drug addicts.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare held the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee on Tuesday to decide on a plan to apply health insurance benefits to treat and protect drug addicts.

The government has designated and operated 25 treatment centers to treat drug addicts and supports the treatment costs of patients through the budget. The budget for 2023 was 800 million won ($621,000).

Until now, treatment costs for drug addicts have not been covered by health insurance as they were stipulated as non-reimbursable by health insurance.

In recent years, however, the need for universal coverage of health insurance has been raised from the aspect of changing the social perception of drug addiction from an individual's deviation and crime to a disease that needs and can be treated and strengthening the national responsibility for addiction treatment.

Besides, there has been a controversy over equity because the government does not reimburse those subject to treatment protection while providing insurance benefits for other drug addicts, including those not under treatment protection and those ordered by the court to undergo treatment or supervised treatment.

The ministry said the decision would cause additional expenses of between 590 million won, and 2.15 billion won annually, assuming that the number of treatable addicts remains at about 421 like in 2022.

"The health insurance benefit is expected to provide sufficient and appropriate treatment to patients and ensure accessibility by expanding the participation of medical institutions within the general healthcare system, and the timely reimbursement of treatment costs will help to reduce the avoidance of medical treatment," the ministry said.

The ministry plans to revise the “Rules on Standards for National Health Insurance Medical Benefits” in the first half of next year to apply health insurance to treating drug addicts.