• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2014

Background: Bankrupted households have recently been increased due to excessive medical expenditure in Korea. They have not been protected from economic risk when household's member has severe diseases that need a lot of money for treatment. Purpose of this study examines policy effect by comparing unmet needs' change of policy object households and non-object groups. Methods: We used Korea Health panel 2nd 4th data collected by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and National Health Insurance Service. Analysis subjects were 381 households (pre-policy) and 393 households (post-policy) that had cancer and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Since it was major concern that estimates benefit strengthening policy started by certain time, we setup comparing households which had diabetes, hypertension disease. Comparison subjects were 393,247 households, respectively and we evaluated policy effect using difference in difference (DID) model. Results: Although unmet needs of policy object households were higher than non-object groups, policy execution variable affected negative direction. But interaction-term which shows pure effect of policy was not statistically significant. We utilized multi-DID model to examine factors affecting unmet needs causes. Copayment assistance policy did not significantly affect households that responded to 'economic reason,' and 'no have time to visit' for unmet needs causes. Conclusion: The second copayment assistance policy did not significantly give positive effect to beneficiary households than non-beneficiary groups. When we consider that primary purpose of public insurance guarantee high medical expenditure occurred by unexpected events, it needs to deliberate on switch of benefit strengthening policy that can assist vulnerable people. Also, we suggest that government forward a policy covering non-reimbursable medical expenses as well as switch of benefit strengthening direction because benefit policy do not affect non-covered medical cost which accounts for quarter of total health expenditure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.223-223
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• 2015

This research evaluates cooperation in transboundary rivers with special reference to the Great Mekong Subregion (GMS) program in the Mekong River Basin. The benefit sharing approach has been deployed as a theoretical framework to analyze the extent to which the riparian states have achieved cooperation. The river basin governance led by the Mekong River Commission since 1995 has not adequately performed due to non-participation of upstream countries and the lack of law enforcement mechanism. Since the late 1980s, China has undertaken hydropower development unilaterally, thereby triggering discomfort from the Lower Mekong countries. The GMS program has led China to strengthening economic ties with the downstream countries through hydropower development as investors and developers. The program has also supported the establishment of economic corridors, and removal of physical barriers and has paved the way for cooperation in other sectors, such as the environment, agriculture, tourism and energy. There are challenges for further cooperation, including the development gaps between China and the downstream countries, political tensions and environment impacts of hydropower dams in the river basin. The Mekong River Basin shows the possibility of cooperation through benefit sharing. Sharing benefits accrued from the river and beyond the river between China and the downstream countries have enhanced economic ties, thereby consolidating cooperation each another.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.379-381
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• 2019

Korea's healthcare is in great danger of sustainability. In 2020, the baby boomer will begin to be older, and there is no promise that the total fertility rate of 1.0 or less will rebound, and Korea's economic growth rate is predicted to be less than 2%. Together with these phenomena, Plan for Benefit Expansion in Nation Health Insurance (Moon Jae-in Care) will seriously threaten the sustainability of health insurance finance. In addition, health care in Korea has many problems: excessive medical utilization, rapidly increasing elderly medical costs, concentrating patients into big hospitals, low healthcare personnel but many healthcare facilities and equipment, bad quality of primary and mental care, and fast-growing health expenditure. For sustainability, healthcare of Korea should be reformed. The direction of the reform is people-centered and integrated healthcare in the community which is composed of empowering and engaging people, strengthening governance and accountability, reorienting the model of care, coordinating services, and creating an enabling environment.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2021

To develop policies regarding fertility and pregnancy that will be effective in preventing further declines in fertility rates in the context present-day Korea, current policies in Japan were analyzed and compared with those now being implemented in Korea. This study was structured to involve (a) comparison of maternal health projects in Korea and Japan, and (b) comparison of infertility support policies based in regional cities in Korea and Japan. Korea's Health Plan 2030 emphasizes strengthening healthcare for high-risk pregnant women, expanding investments to benefit vulnerable groups, and establishing a support system for infertile couples. In Japan, government programs involving treatment targeting infertility specifically were implemented nationwide in 2006. Wide dissemination of accurate knowledge related to pregnancy is emphasized. Also, counseling centers specializing in infertility were established by 67 local governments. We have confirmed that Korean policies include decentralization, while Japan is implementing the central government's infertility policy uniformly in all regions. Japan also adjusted its policy out of concern that problems related to infertility and childbirth will worsen due to the social disaster of COVID-19. The results indicate that providing additional support for psychological counseling may be preferable to increasing the number of in-vitro fertilization procedures. The physical burden on women may be minimized by benchmarking policies in Japan. Step-by-step application of these procedures should be systematically supported to achieve the best results.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.3-18
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• 2009

It is difficult for consumers to satisfy high safety request with post-management method such as inspection and surveillance, as various changes in-and-out of the country associated with food safety. In terms of food safety problems related to foods, it is crucial to recognize public health and consumer protection and construct pre-preventive Food Control System. A joint committee, FAO/WHO made the following consultations to the National Food Safety System. ${\circ}$ Approach entirely from farm to table ${\circ}$ Get ready for Risk Analysis System ${\circ}$ Secure transparency ${\circ}$ Establish the optimal policy by evaluating the effect of regulation When it comes to summarizing the consultation, it would be accumulated as two key words; "Efficiency" and "Credibility". Whereas the problem of efficiency focuses on precaution rather than post-management, it requires policy option to maximize consumer's benefit by evaluating the cost for the Food Safety Management and its benefit. Also, analyzing risk's character and amount, demanding an optimal means, and introducing scientific analysis system put much value on the stakeholder's communications are procedure's security which can satisfy both "Efficiency" and "Credibility" simultaneously. Especially, it is emphasized here that Risk Assessment need to be separated from Risk Management. This action is a valid means of credibility security throughout improving transparency. A number of nations and organizations have reformed the method of food management passing through reflection and examination of the prior National Food Safety Management since BSE occurred in Britain, 1996. FSA; Food Standard Agency, AFFSA, EFSA, BfR, and FSC are Risk Assessment Organization functionally separated from Risk Management Organization, JECFA, JMCFA, JMPR, JEMRA in Codex charge Risk Assessment internationally. In case of advanced countries excluding several those such as The U.S. and so forth, though these Risk Assessment Organizations are either separated functionally within Risk Management Organization or operated as apart organ, common factors are in which it has independence as Science Base. While securing independence of Risk Assessment Function, it is a tendency Risk Management should be functionally unified into efficiency as well. Though Germany constructs integral Risk Management System of diverse ways according to social and political conditions of each country such as GFOCP, DVFA, SNFA, CFIS and AQIS, there is a key word in the center, "Securing efficiency of Food Safety Management". However our nation has a representative plural；diversified system with The U.S., we took a step forward for unification as empowering policy's generalization；adjustment and Risk Assessment Function by means of enacting the "Food Safety Fundamental Law" in 2008 and establishing the "Food Safety Policy Commission" with private and governmental sectors in the Prime Minister's office. Even though the unification of Risk Management hereby increased, there is the lack of strengthening function of Risk Assessment and securing independence. It needs to be required for the professional committee in Food Safety Policy Commission to develop as a exclusive office of Risk Assessment by separating from a policy decision. Administrative Branches should reinforce feeble functions such as fundamental investigation；research for carrying out Risk Assessment with securing efficiency throughout reassessment of prior Risk Management Means.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.25-45
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• 2002

Opening of trade relationships through an increasing number of international free trade agreements and the now defunct General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has resulted in an increase the number of the species being exchanged in the world. In the last 20 years, international environmental laws have multiplied and a number of treaties address harmful non-indigenous species (NIS) directly with specific provisions, while other treaties deal with related environmental issues and indirectly affect international regulation of NIS; however, such treaties are weak due to lack of enforceability. From the stand point of national law, many countries including the USA, Australia and New Zealand enforce national laws and regulations to protect biological resources. Typical strategies include : 1) strengthening quarantines to prevent unintentional and illegal introduction of harmful NIS, and 2) developing technologies for managing harmful NIS. However, the recent international trend for managing NIS has shifted. In 2002, the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefit Arising out of their Utilization was adopted at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity. One major issue highlighted in the document is that "there is no more free of charge to get a biological resource from other countries". The Bonn guidelines will affect international and national NIS regulatory systems because the NIS is a potentially disrupts ecosystems as well as native species. A number of impacts are expected including the revamping of national biodiversity policy regimes in many countries in the world. In particular, the ROK, which is not very biologically diverse, has to evolve national laws to protect valuable ecosystems from NIS. In the meanwhile, national rights of using beneficial indigenous and non-indigenous species as biological resources should be considered through the investigation and national registration of NIS around the world for the promotion of the biotech industry.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.95-133
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• 2006

This research first reviewed and analysed the current domestic situation of the voluntary agreement implementation and then it developed the policy implementation scenarios which will be applied to the model, KORTEM_ V.2. The model, consisted with 83 industries and commodities, examined the economic and environmental impacts of this policy instrument. Depending on the efforts of participating sectors and agents for fuel substitution and energy efficiency improvement, it has been evaluated that the voluntary agreement could be the "no-regret" policy. In other words, if the participating sectors and agents can achieve the voluntary energy conservation and emission reduction target without the negative impact on output level, the reduction of national emission will be achieved by creating the economic benefit, simultaneously. Therefore, for the successful implementation of voluntary agreement, this study emphasized the importance of expansion and strengthening of the current financial and institutional support for participating sectors and agents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8541-8551
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• 2016

Background: The coverage of breast and cervical cancer screening has only slightly increased in the past decade in Thailand, and these cancers remain leading causes of death among women. This study identified socioeconomic and contextual factors contributing to the variation in screening uptake and coverage. Materials and Methods: Secondary data from two nationally representative household surveys, the Health and Welfare Survey (HWS) 2007 and the Reproductive Health Survey (RHS) 2009 conducted by the National Statistical Office were used. The study samples comprised 26,951 women aged 30-59 in the 2009 RHS, and 14,619 women aged 35 years and older in the 2007 HWS were analyzed. Households of women were grouped into wealth quintiles, by asset index derived from Principal components analysis. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Screening rates for cervical and breast cancers increased between 2007 and 2009. Education and health insurance coverage including wealth were factors contributing to screening uptake. Lower or non-educated and poor women had lower uptake of screenings, as were young, unmarried, and non-Buddhist women. Coverage of the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme increased the propensity of having both screenings, while the universal coverage scheme increased the probability of cervical screening among the poor. Lack of awareness and knowledge contributed to non-use of both screenings. Women were put off from screening, especially Muslim women on cervical screening, because of embarrassment, fear of pain and other reasons. Conclusions: Although cervical screening is covered by the benefit package of three main public health insurance schemes, free of charge to all eligible women, the low coverage of cervical screening should be addressed by increasing awareness and strengthening the supply side. As mammography was not cost effective and not covered by any scheme, awareness and practice of breast self examination and effective clinical breast examination are recommended. Removal of cultural barriers is essential.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.43
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• pp.231-257
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• 2015

Today, the international community make every effort to suppress security crimes, to provide numerous institutional strategies and to prevent security crimes such as the terrorism and spy. Particularly, developed countries in the field of security are strengthening related legislation under new-security conditions. Things work a little differently about security crimes because the nation's benefit and protection of the law is the basis of individual benefit and protection of the law under investigation procedure of the security crimes. Therefore they have policy that permits major investigative agency under the arrest and detention procedure(e.g. security and communication monitoring ${\ldots}$). Criminal procedure's improvement and reinforcement are very important for events related security. But, The investigation procedure between criminal offense and security crimes makes no odds in the Korea. Continuance of such a national mood will accuse of not responding appropriately in preparation for new-security conditions recently. To revise with international best security legislation, We should institute a proper registration system in Korea's situation. This study have been discussing how to improve related legislation under new-security conditions through the cases analysis of the arrest and detention procedure in Korea.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2009

A hypermarket as the one of the most globally standardized retailing format is also the type of store among various types of stores that the most active in expanding into other foreign markets. Recently, as several Korean retailing companies start to penetrate into Chinese market they differentiate themselves with modern facilities and customers service oriented high-end concept. China and Korea as Far East Asian countries share many common values, however precise and careful analysis should be carried out since there may also be critical differences in socio-economic aspects as well as in consumption patterns due to the level of development stages of retail industry among two countries. Even though precise and careful study is crucial on Chinese retailing market and consumers, none of researches and studies on 'how the quality of service dimensional structure is different between Korea and China', and 'what will be the most important and influential service dimensional factors for Chinese consuers compared to the hypermarkets customers in Korea' in order to improve the level of Chinese consumers satisfaction' have been fulfilled At this point of view, this study uses KD-SQS (Rho Eun Jung & Sir Yong Gu, 2008) which is a measure of Korean hypermarkets service quality to set up a hypothesis on Korean and Chinese consumers, and an empirical analysis is conducted. We try to get the answers about how the comparative importance of Service quality dimensions which decides the level of customer satisfaction is different depending on the cultural dimensions and socio-economic factors among two countries, Korea and China. Based upon the results, we try to give a valuable suggestion of what service dimensional factors should be reinforced to improve the level of CS in Chinese retailing market. Hypotheses for this study are as follows : H1. Each dimension of Service Quality significantly affects the level of CS H2. The effect of 'Basic Benefit' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H3. The effect of 'Promotion' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H4. The effect of 'Physical Aspects'in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in Korea than in China. H5. The effect of 'Personal Interaction' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS is greater in China than in Korea H6. The effect of 'Policy' in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China H7. The effect of additional convenience in service quality dimensions on the level of CS will be greater in Korean than in China. More than 1,100 data were collected directly from the surveys of Chinese and Korean consumers in order to verify the hypotheses above. In Korea, stores which have floor space of over $9,000m^2$and opened later than year 2000 were selected for the samples, and thus Gayang, Wolgye, Sangbong, Eunpyeong, Suh-Suwon, Gojan stores and their customers were surveyed. In China, notable differences in the income levels and consumer behaviors between cities and regions were considered, and thus the research area was limited to the stores only in Shanghai. 6 stores which have the size of over $6,000m^2$ and opened later than 2000, such as Ruihong, Intu, Mudanjang, Sanrin, Raosimon, and Ranchao stores were selected for the survey. SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used as statistical tools, and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group analysis were conducted. In order to carry out a multi group analysis that decides whether the structure variables which shows the different effects of 6 service dimensions in Korean and Chinese groups is statistically valid, configural invariance, metric invariance, and structural invariance are tested in order. At the results of the tests, 3 out of 7 hypotheses were supported and other 4 hypotheses were denied. According to the study, 4 dimensions (Basic Benefit, Physical Environment, Policy, and additional convenience) were positively correlated with CS in Korea, and 3 dimensions (i.e. basic benefit, policy, additional convenience) were significant in China. However, the significance of the service-dimensions was turned out to be partially different in Korea and China. The Basic Benefit is more influential in deciding the level of CS in china than Korea, however Physical Aspect is more important factor in Korea. 'Policy dimension' did not make significant difference between two countries. In the 'additional convenience dimension', the differences in 'socio-economic factors' than in'cultural background' were considered as more important in Chinese consumers than Korean. Overall, the improvement of Service quality will be crucial factors to increase the level of CS in Chinese market same as Korean market. In addition, more emphases need to be placed on the service qualities of 'Basic Benefit' and 'additional convenience' dimensions in China. In particular, 'low price' and 'product diversity' that constitute 'Basic Benefit' are proved to be comparatively disadvantageous and weak points of Korean companies compared to global players, and thus the prompt strengthening those dimensions would be urgent for Korean retailers. Moreover, additional conveniences such as various tenants and complex service and entertaining area will be more important in China than in Korea. Besides, Applying advanced Korean Hypermaret`s customer policy to Chinese consumers will help to get higher reliability and to differentiate themselves to other competitors. However, as personal interaction, physical aspect, promotions were proved as not significant for the level of CS in China, Korean companies need to reconsider the priority order of resource allocations when they tap into Chinese market.