• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.23-48
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• 2008

Although the universal health insurance, National Health Insurance (NHI), have improved access to health care and financial burden of health care costs for Koreans, limited coverage of the NHI leads to high out-of-pocket payment for health care. This study examines financial burden of household health expenditures by income level. Data from the Urban Household Expenditure Survey from 1985 through 2005 is analyzed and household expenditure is used as a proxy measure for income. Health expenditures include spending for inpatient care, ambulatory care and pharmaceuticals. If a household spends health expenditure above 40% of household consumption except for foods, that is defined as catastrophic health expenditure. Access to health care for the lowest income group had been improved for two decades relative to other income groups as well as in absolute term. However, both financial burden of health expenditures and the proportion of households that experienced catastrophic health expenditure had been increased in the lowest income group. Study findings have several policy implications. First, in terms of financial burden of health expenditures. the differences among income groups decreased until 2000 but it was worsen in 2005. This suggests that recent policies for extending NHI coverage are not enough to improve the disparity by income level. Second, a differential catastrophic coverage by income level would be an effective strategy that relieves financial burden for low income group. Third, since the catastrophic coverage is applied to only covered services by the NHI, additional strategy for uncovered services should be considered.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.289-295
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• 2013

Different functions have been attributed to $CD4^+CD25^+Foxp3^+$ regulatory T-cells (Tregs) during malaria infection. Herein, we describe the disparity in Treg response and pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines during infection with Plasmodium berghei ANKA between young (3-week-old) and middle-aged (8-month-old) C57BL/6 mice. Young mice were susceptible to cerebral malaria (CM), while the middle-aged mice were resistant to CM and succumbed to hyperparasitemia and severe anemia. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-${\alpha}$, in young CM-susceptible mice were markedly higher than in middle-aged CM-resistant mice. An increased absolute number of Tregs 3-5 days post-inoculation, co-occurring with elevated IL-10 levels, was observed in middle-aged CM-resistant mice but not in young CM-susceptible mice. Our findings suggest that Treg proliferation might be associated with the suppression of excessive pro-inflammatory Th1 response during early malaria infection, leading to resistance to CM in the middle-aged mice, possibly in an IL-10-dependent manner.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.624-635
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• 2020

This study focuses on the right to self-determination, which has a higher possibility of infringement on rights, for people with developmental disabilities, who are more vulnerable to rights protection than other types of disabilities, and seeks to obtain implications of the basis for academic discussion and practical strategies. To this end, data were collected through a structured survey on 302 social workers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon area to identify the importance and execution degree of self-determination components of the developmental disabled, and descriptive analysis, differences. analysis, matrix analysis was applied. As a result of the analysis, the importance and performance degree were evaluated at an absolute level lower than the positive level, and the overall average standard execution degree was found to be applied relatively later, and the difference between the two levels was statistically significant. Meanwhile, goal setting and achievement, self-management and regulation, branch recognition and perception, etc. were identified as under-action elements as disparity between importance and performance. Therefore, in order to improve the balanced positivity of social workers and people with developmental disabilities in consideration of the reciprocity of human rights protection, applied behavior analysis, positive behavior support, and individualized service plan based on the application of a person-centered program and self-determination improvement program are applied. Suggestions were made on detailed strategies such as accounting.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 2003

This writer absolutely agrees with the government that regional disequilibrium is severe enough to consider moving the administrative capital. Pursuing this course solely to establish a balanced development, however, is not a convincing enough reason. The capital city is directly related to not only the social and economic situation but, much more importantly, to the domestic political situation as well. In the mid-1970s, the proposal by the Third Republic to move the capital city temporarily was based completely on security reasons. At e time, the then opposition leader Kim, Dae-jung said that establishing a safe distance from the demilitarized zone(DMZ) reflected a typically military decision. His view was that retaining the capital city close to the DMZ would show more consideration for the will of the people to defend their own country. In fact, independent Pakistan moved its capital city from Karachi to Islamabad, situated dose to Kashmir the subject of hot territorial dispute with India. It is regrettable that no consideration has been given to the urgent political situation in the Korean peninsula, which is presently enveloped in a dense nuclear fog. As a person requires health to pursue his/her dream, a country must have security to implement a balanced territorial development. According to current urban theories, the fate of a country depends on its major cities. A negligently guarded capital city runs the risk of becoming hostage and bringing ruin to the whole country. In this vein, North Koreas undoubted main target of attack in the armed communist reunification of Korea is Seoul. For the preservation of our state, therefore, it is only right that Seoul must be shielded to prevent becoming hostage to North Korea. The location of the US Armed Forces to the north of the capital city is based on the judgment that defense of Seoul is of absolute importance. At the same time, regardless of their different standpoints, South and North Korea agree that division of the Korean people into two separate countries is abnormal. Reunification, which so far has defied all predictions, may be realized earlier than anyone expects. The day of reunification seems to be the best day for the relocation of the capital city. Building a proper capital city would take at least twenty years, and a capital city cannot be dragged from one place to another. On the day of a free and democratic reunification, a national agreement will be reached naturally to find a nationally symbolic city as in Brazil or Australia. Even if security does not pose a problem, the governments way of thinking would not greatly contribute to the balanced development of the country. The Chungcheon region, which is earmarked as the new location of the capital city, has been the greatest beneficiary of its proximity to the capital region. Not being a disadvantaged region, locating the capital city there would not help alleviate regional disparity. If it is absolutely necessary to find a candidate region at present, considering security, balanced regional development and post-reunification scenario of the future, Cheolwon area located in the middle of the Korean peninsula may be a plausible choice. Even if the transfer of capital is delayed in consideration of the present political conflict between the South and the North Koreas, there is a definite shortcut to realizing a balanced regional development. It can be found not in the geographical dispersal of the central government, but in the decentralization of power to the provinces. If the government has surplus money to build a new symbolic capital city, it is only right that it should improve, for instance, the quality of drinking water which now everyone eschews, and to help the regional subway authority whose chronic deficit state resoled in a recent disastrous accident. And it is proper to time the transfer of capital city to coincide with that of the reunification of Korea whenever Providence intends.