Hepatitis C test at age 56 added to free national health checkup in Korea starting in 2025

Starting next January, people aged 56 will be tested for hepatitis C for free when they undergo a national health checkup, and women aged 60 will be included in the osteoporosis screening program.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held the “Second National Health Checkup Committee for 2024” to deliberate on the fifth-cycle evaluation plan for hospital- and clinic-level screening centers, introducing hepatitis C test for general health checkups, and expanding osteoporosis screening targets for general health checkups, and released the results.

It also reported the plan to increase fees for infant and toddler health checkups as part of the follow-up measures for pediatric medical care and the pilot project to improve the student health checkup system in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

The ministry has evaluated medical checkup organizations every three years since 2012 based on the Basic Health Checkup Act to improve the quality of national health checkups.

The evaluation targets hospital- and clinic-level screening centers for nine types of screenings, including general health checkups, infant and child checkups, oral examinations, and screenings for six major cancers.

The ministry has reorganized its plan for the fifth-cycle evaluation of screening centers by incentivizing excellent institutions for general health checkups and cancer screenings to strengthen their motivation to manage quality while revising health checkups and oral examinations to enhance education.

In addition, it has taken various improvement measures, including increasing the weight of disease prediction in the evaluation of cancer screening centers.

Hepatitis C screening introduced in national health checkups

Notably, the committee introduced a new hepatitis C test. As a result, from next year, people aged 56 will be screened for hepatitis C when they undergo a national health checkup.

The introduction of the national health checkup for hepatitis C will likely contribute to preventing severe liver disease by detecting patients with hepatitis C early and linking it with the follow-up management system, such as national cancer screening.

It also decided to expand the osteoporosis screening program, now limited to women aged 54 and 66, to women aged 60 from next year.

Last December, the ministry also announced the expansion of osteoporosis screening as a major measure to improve women's health through consultation with the governing party.

The committee also reported on the plan to increase the number of infant and child health checkups as a follow-up to the pediatric medical complementary measures and the pilot project to improve the student health checkup system in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Accordingly, the fee for infant and child health checkups will increase from 80 percent to 100 percent of the existing basic checkup fee, and that for health education and counseling will rise from 2,100 won to 4,000 won (from $1.5 to $2.8).

"Due to population aging and the increase in chronic diseases, it is necessary to shift the healthcare system to proactive and integrated healthcare," Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo said. "The government will make the National Health Checkup System an important pillar for disease prevention and strive to increase the healthy life span of all citizens through early detection and follow-up management of diseases and lifestyle improvement."

The issues decided by the National Health Checkup Committee will be applied from January next year after follow-up work, such as reorganizing the system and revising the notification of health checkup implementation standards, in the second half of this year.