National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) President Kim Yong-ik held talks with visiting delegation of the World Health Insurance at his Seoul office, on Wednesday.

The meeting was part of the two-day Korea-WHO policy dialogue, which was also the follow-up of the U.N. agency’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS), which was signed between the Korean government and WHO in January to promote the health of people in the West Pacific area, NSIS said in a news release.

During the talks, the two sides discussed medical support for North Korea through WHO, sharing of know-how regarding universal healthcare in developing countries, strategies on drug price negotiations and joint research by using bid data system.”

“We are willing to share know-how on accomplishing universal healthcare system as well as operating national long-term care insurance,” NHIS President Kim said. “Our agency will also try to share know-how on operating big data system to contribute to the attaining of the universal healthcare system in developing countries, through strategic cooperation with the WHO.”

Edward Kelly, WHO’s coordinator and head of the strategic program and patient safety, said, “Korea’s health insurance system, particularly its know-how on long-term care service and the collection of insurance fees deserve to be shared with other countries.” As the Korean agency is running the big data system very well, we think it desirable to conduct joint research and seek ways to transfer the know-how to developing countries, he added.

“Most developing countries are experiencing difficulties negotiating with multinational pharmaceutical companies, and we hope the Korean agency will share its accumulated experiences as a sole insurer with developing countries,” Kelly said.

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