The government-doctor conflict over ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “healthcare reform” continues until the incumbent administration's end.

For instance, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) has been at odds with the government over forming the Medical Manpower Supply and Demand Committee.

The nation’s largest doctors’ group protested that the government “denied the representation of the KMA, ignoring and turning away from the association " in the recommendation process. Although the recommendation process was completed, medical sources say sparks of conflict remain.

In its regular briefing on May 22, the association expressed regret that “the government excluded KMA, a representative body of doctors and a statutory organization, from the healthcare policy-making process and ignored communication and cooperation.”

The association noted that the first consultation meeting on promoting the Korean-style training management system was held on May 13 without KMA and urged the government to “improve the composition and operation of the consultative body.”

On May 23, the KMA issued a statement criticizing the proposal to promote managed care was made without consulting the medical community and was tabled on the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee, calling it a “hasty promotion without sufficiently gathering the opinions of the medical community.” The non-reimbursement care management council, which decides on the items to be covered by managed benefits, was also “arbitrarily composed and secretively operated by the government,” the KMA criticized.

In response, Seo Shin-cho, general secretary of the Korean Medical Association, said at a recent meeting with young doctors, “We will not participate in the unreimbursed care management council at this point. We continue to protest against the unilateral policy. In that regard, our participation in the council is also on hold,” said Dr. Seo Shin-cho, a general affairs director at KMA, in a recent interview with Korea Biomedical Review.

The medical community said it is unwilling to accept policies, such as managed care, that come from the former president's direct” healthcare reform task force.” According to medical sources, not only is the policy direction and legitimacy problematic, but it is also “not sustainable. "

The sources said that’s not least because the next government will inevitably revise the healthcare reform policy. Less than a week before the new government was sworn in, they added there was no point in negotiating with the current government.

“We have a new president next week. (Whichever candidate from either party wins) will try to show the medical community a different face from the current government, at least at the beginning,” said a director representing a department at the KMA requesting anonymity. “To put it bluntly, there is no need or reason for the medical community to try to get something from the ‘outgoing government’ now.”

At a Friday seminar co-hosted by the doctors’ group, KMA President Kim Taek-woo said, “The government always says to the medical community, 'Let's form a committee, let's discuss it in a council.' They ask the medical community to participate because we are experts. Still, when we get inside, they tell us to follow the decisions of the (non-expert) consumers.”

“These committees are used to shift blame for problems that arise during the policy-making process,” Kim said. “If the government truly wants to collect expert opinions and consult with the medical community, it should at least ensure a 50-50 balance of (medical and non-medical) participants and try to improve structural deficiencies and direction.”