Park Geun-hye’s Administration threw a bomb at the Healthcare System. Health insurance in South Korea has been threatened with the government’s new policy to allow telemedicine and for-profit medical subsidiaries. The Korean Medical Association has been strongly against the plan and urged the administration to stop. Also, many experts related to the medical industry have been seriously concerned with this tricky plan, known as privatizing the public sector. Even though the government officials do not say “privatization,” the policy will let the medical insurance system take a step into being privatized.
The reason why this plan has been enacted is related to non-profit hospitals’ problems with its finance. Those hospitals are known to have serious financial problems, but it is a sick joke. According to ‘Newstapa,’ they have classified its profit into investing expense. Recalculating those figures, 38 large hospitals in South Korea would have massive net profit, more than two hundred million dollars for five years.
What is the nation’s duty for people? It has a remarkable responsibility for promoting citizen’s quality of life. Among social overhead capitals, medical treatment is indispensible. Is the policy really aimed at citizen’s interests? From this change, who is a real beneficiary? If the nation really thinks of its people, it needs to make some solutions for how they can have better medical services with reasonable expenses, especially in this economic crisis. But the administration is giving a chance to hospitals to suck the citizen’s bloody money. Because the government has always sided on industrialists, it seems so natural. The United States with bad health care is getting reformed with ‘Obama Care’ but South Korea takes an irreversible way to be commercialized. Will the quality of Korean life be advanced? My answer is “No,” but most enterprisers do. Hurry up! It is time to get private medical insurance! If you cannot afford to have it, there is no way. In the future, you will just die if you get in a serious accident or a disease such as cancer. It is all thanks to the government of South Korea!
By Kim Dae-hwan, Guest Reporter
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