Korea must introduce the employment sickness benefit scheme so that workers can receive timely treatment and get rest sufficiently, a lawmaker said.

Rep. Ko Young-in of the ruling Democratic Party said in a news release on Tuesday that Korea was “almost the only country” among 36 OECD members with no sickness benefit program.

Although the U.S. does not have sickness benefits, it operates the paid sick leave program. Thus, it is unreasonable to compare the U.S. case with that of Korea, he said.

In Korea, the paid sick leave is available for government officials and regular workers for up to 30 days. However, taking sick leave for longer than a month means no additional wages. In other words, a worker on sick leave beyond the 30-day limit will not have any income, except for partial coverage of treatment expenses through the national health insurance program.

Separately, injured workers can still receive industrial damage compensation, and if they lost their jobs due to injury, they receive unemployment benefits.

Among 182 countries of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), only 19 nations do not have sickness benefits. The 19 are Korea, the U.S., Syria, Oman, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, Yemen, Kiribati, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Sierra Leone.

As more people are losing jobs due to Covid-19, the nation needs to introduce sickness benefits, Ko said.

The government has refused to adopt sickness benefits, citing a budget shortage, despite the institutionalized sickness benefit scheme under the Health Insurance Act.

However, the government said it would commission a study in 2021 and run a pilot program for low-income families from 2022 as part of the “Korean New Deal” economic stimulus package.

According to the National Health Insurance Service’s study on the introduction of sickness benefits, the nation would need at least 700 billion won ($602.8 million) or up to 1.6 trillion won to provide sickness benefits for all Korean workers subscribing to the national health insurance.

“Korea has become an international model for good defense against Covid-19, but we must reflect on the fact that our system is worse than lagging countries,” Ko said.

Sickness benefits should be available as soon as possible so that workers can get rest when they are sick, he emphasized.