The government bet all on increasing the medical school enrollment quota. However, it even had no fiscal estimate for the increase.

A hearing at the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday revealed these and other facts.

"It has been four months since the Yoon Suk Yeol administration announced the decision to increase medical school admissions by 2,000. However, it still has no idea how much money it must allocate to each school," said Rep. Kang Sun-woo of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

Rep. Kang asked Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyoo-hong if his ministry was discussing the budget for increasing medical school students. However, Minister Cho said, "The task is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, which is consulting it with the Ministry of Economy and Finance."

Kang also reminded that the budget must be submitted to the National Assembly by Sept. 2 for the 2025 budget to reflect the increase in medical school admissions.

Asked whether the government will exempt medical schools that must expand their facilities due to increased enrollment from preliminary feasibility studies, Cho said, "In a public statement, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that he would exempt preliminary feasibility studies for facility investment, so I think they will be exempted."

However, Rep. Kang took issue with the reply, saying, "It is natural for a normal government to carefully analyze how much money and manpower it costs before establishing such a policy."

The DPK lawmaker also analyzed that 5.75 trillion won ($4.13 billion) is needed for 27 medical schools with an enrollment increase rate of more than 40 percent, based on data submitted by universities.

Commenting on the analysis reported in the media, Second Vice Minister of Welfare Park Min-soo said that it was not true and that the related budget was under review by the Ministry of Education.