Korea moves to mandate up to 10 years of rural service for select newly trained doctors

A bill requiring up to 10 years of mandatory service for regional doctors passed the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday.

However, lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties voiced concerns, calling it “legislation without a big-picture plan” for the government’s “REP” (regional, essential, and public) care system. They particularly emphasized delays in the public medical school bill and urged the government to expedite progress.

The Health-Welfare Committee passed the Act on the Training and Support of Regional Doctors to introduce the regional physician system. The related bill passed the committee’s first subcommittee on Tuesday, but the bill to establish a public medical school was stalled in the second subcommittee on Wednesday, as members agreed to wait for a more concrete government proposal.

“The Regional Doctor Act was passed together with the Public Medical School Act on Dec. 2, 2023, during the 21st National Assembly,” said Rep. Park Hee-seung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), who proposed the public medical college bill. “Since the Regional Doctor System cannot solve every problem on its own, the public medical school must be implemented concurrently.”

Park questioned why the public medical school bill “needs more time” and urged prompt discussion and passage.

Echoing these sentiments, Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the opposition People Power Party (PPP) criticized the government for failing to present a comprehensive blueprint for the REP care strategy, which encompasses both the regional doctor system and public medical schools.

Kim said, “The Lee Jae Myung administration should create a concrete plan before legislating, but instead is pushing legislation forward without one.”

She added, “We cannot review the bill without a government report explaining how conflicts between laws will be resolved or clarifying whether the Public Medical Officer Academy and the public medical school are overlapping or separate. Passing it now could worsen problems.”

Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong responded, “We are preparing a government amendment on the public medical school and will submit it swiftly to the National Assembly. It will be part of a broader regional healthcare strategy, and we will report back.”

Following these developments, the committee also passed an amendment to the Medical Service Act related to non-face-to-face (telemedicine) care.

An amendment to the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act—barring telemedicine platform operators from obtaining pharmaceutical wholesaler licenses—also passed.

Proposed by DPK lawmaker Kim Yoon, the bill aims to prevent platforms from setting up wholesalers after remote consultations and using them to offer preferential pharmacy exposure, which may encourage repeat drug purchases.

Kim said, “This law is not intended to restrict remote consultations but to stop pharmaceutical rebates. The government must ensure this during implementation.”

Minister Jeong responded, “We will carefully manage implementation to prevent illegal rebates.”