• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.159-178
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• 2011

Korea ranks high among the OECD member countries with a high out-of-pocket share. In 2006, the government implemented in full scale the policy of extending the health insurance benefit coverage. Included in the policy are lowering the out-of-pocket share of patients of serious case and expanding the medical bill ceiling system to mention just a few. This study proposes to confirm effectiveness of the benefit extension policy by identifying changes in 'out-of-pocket expenditure as a share of the ability to pay' and 'incidence rate of catastrophic health care expenditure' of each individual household as manifested before and after the benefit extension policy was implemented. The 1st and 3rd year data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study (KoWePS), conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), were used for the analysis, where low-income households and ordinary households are sampled separately. While the absolute amount of 'out-of-pocket expenditure' occurred to the average household increased for the period 2005-2007, the 'out-of-pocket expenditure as a share of the ability to pay' decreased. At the same time, the share decreased in the case of low-income households and households with patients of chronic or serious case as contrasted with ordinary households. 'Incidence rates of catastrophic health care expenditure' of ordinary households for 2007 stood at 14.6%, 5.9% and 2.8% at the threshold of 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively. The rates decreased overall between 2005 and 2007, while those of low-income households with patients of serious case statistically significantly increased. An analysis of this study indicates that it is related with the medical bill ceiling system regardless of incomes introduced in 2007.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2023

Background: To improve the support low-income individuals' medical expenses, it is necessary to think about ways to enhance the Catastrophic Health Expenditure Support Program. This study proposes expanding support criteria and changing the income standard. Methods: This study conducted simulations using national data from the National Health Insurance Service. Simulations performed for people who have used health services (n=172,764) in 2022 to confirm the Catastrophic Health Expenditure Support Program's size based on changes to the subject selection criteria. Results: As a result of the simulation with expanded criteria, the expected budget was estimated to increase between Korean won (KRW) 13.2 (11.5%) and 138.6 billion (37.4%), and the number of recipients increased between 41,979 (48.9%) and 150,317 (76.1%). The results of the simulation for the change in income criteria (applied to health insurance levels below the 50th percentile) estimated the expected budget to increase between KRW -8.9 (-7.8%) and 55.6 billion (15.0%) and the number of recipients to increase between -8,704 (-10.1%) and 41,693 (21.1%) compared to the current standard. Conclusion: The 2023 Catastrophic Health Expenditure Support Program's criteria were expanded as per the 20th Presidential Office's national agenda to alleviate the burden of medical expenses on the low-income class. In addition, The Catastrophic Health Expenditure Support Program needs to be integrated with other medical expense support policies in the mid- to long-term, and a foundation must be prepared to ensure the consistency of each system.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.25 no.3 s.39
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• pp.303-311
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• 1992

It is very important to estimate the future medical care expenditure, because medical care expenditure escalation is a big problem not only in the health industry but also in the Korean economy today. This study was designed to project the medical care expenditure in view of population age change. The data of this study were the population projection data based on National Census Data(1990) of the National Statistical Office and the Statistical Reports of the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation. The future medical care expenditure was eatimated by the regression model and the optional simulation model. The significant results are as follows : 1. The future medical care expenditure will be 3,963 billion Won in the year 2000, 4,483 billion Won in 2010, and 4,826 billion Won in 2020, based on the 1990 market price considering only the population age change. 2. The proportion of the total medical care expenditure in the elderly over 65 will be 10.4% in 2000, 13.5% in 2010, and 16.9% in 2020. 3. The future medical care expenditure will be 4,306 billion Won in the year 2000, 5,101 billion Won in 2010, and 5,699 billion Won in 2020 based on the 1990 market price considering the age structure change and the change of the case-cost estimated by the regression model. 4. When we consider the age-structure change and inflation compared with the preceding year, the future medical care expenditurein 2020 will be 21 trillion Won based on a 5% inflation rate, 42 trillion Won based on a 7.5% inflation rate, and 84 trillion Won based on a 10% inflation rate. Consideration of the aged(65 years old and over) will be essential to understand the acute increase of medical care expenditure due to changes in age structure of the population. Therefore, alternative policies and programs for the caring of the aged should be further studied.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.57-66
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• 2015

Objective : Private health insurance coverage in Korean medicine has been reduced since October 2009 for preventing unnecessary utilization. The aim of this study is to identify how private health insurance coverage reduction affects on the Korean medicine utilization. Method : We analyzed the Korea Health Panel data from 2008 to 2012. Panel negative binominal regression model was used to analyze the relationship between private health insurance coverage reduction and utilization of outpatient service. Panel tobit regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between private health insurance coverage reduction and health expenditure of outpatient service. Results : Private health insurance coverage reduction significantly dropped both utilization and health expenditure of outpatient service by 9%, 9.22% respectively. In addition, therapeutic utilization significantly decreased up to 10%. Conclusion : Private health insurance coverage reduction seems to have an effect to reduce both utilization and the health expenditure of Korean medicine outpatient service. This effect was more noticeable in the therapeutic utilization. Thus, more elaborate policy will be needed to prevent unnecessary utilization of Korean medicine.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify relationship between work unstability and personal medical expenditure ratio focusing on wage workers' contract period. Method: This study analyzed 2015 yearly data beta version of Korea Health Panel, co-managed by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and National Insurance Corporation for data analysis. When executing linear regression, Household income was applied with equivalized income, and the proportion of personal medical expenditure was naturally logged to perform linear regression and the demographic and socioeconomic factors were taken into account. The demographic and socio-economic factors were also considered. Findings: As a result of reviewing the used factors, it was found that the more unstable work status, the higher personal medical expenditure ratio. This result corresponds to 'The Theory of Fundamental Causes' by Link & Phelan. Conclusion : It indicates that policy efforts should be made to improve the working environment and health level of socially unstable workers.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.112-123
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• 2013

Background: Under the risk of financial sustainability of National Health Insurance, Korean government attempted a series of regulations over pharmaceutical prices. The first price-cut was implemented to the hyperlipidemial treatments, and the prices of statins were reduced on 15th, April in 2009. The purposes of this study are 1) to investigate the impact of this price-cut on pharmaceutical expenditure, and 2) to identify the factors associated with drug-switch among statins. Methods: Using the national patients sample data, this study conducted time series analysis on the expenditures, prices, and volumes of statin drugs. To understand the factors associated with drug-switch, the multinomial logit model was analyzed at the patients level. Results: The results of time series analysis demonstrated that the price-cut of hyperlipidemic medicines did not lead to the reduced expenditure, suggesting the increased volume was the major cause. The multinomial logit analysis identified the switch of healthcare provider as the significant factor that was highly associated with drug-switch, implying the physicians' preference was the major motivation of drug-switch. Conclusion: Without control of utilization, price regulation itself could not reduce pharmaceutical expenditure. This suggests that the pharmaceutical regulations should be implemented on the basis of understanding of provider behaviors. The findings of this study will form the first step for further empirical studies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.75-87
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to compare the amount of household health expenditures (HHE) and the proportion of health care expenditure to the household expenditure by ability to pay(ATP) levels. This study has focused on the influence of household ATP on HHE, estimating elasticity of health care expenditures for different ATP groups. For the empirical analysis, the Urban Households Survey Data of 2002 have been used. Our principal findings show that HHE are sensitive to changes in household ATP levels and that the group which is most responsive to changes in A TP level is the lower ATP group. These suggest that as households have less ATP, households with lower ATP reduce expenditures on health care in a proportional manner than those with higher ATP.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.46-70
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• 2001

Medical Aid expenditure Increased rapidly at a higher rate than that of Medical Insurance during the period 1992-1999. To establish an effective cost containment strategy, knowledge of the cause and the nature of the increase of Medical Aid expenditure is required. The purpose of this study was to analyze increasing rates of Medical Aid expenditure by the components of medical expenses. Data were collected using the Medical Aid Statistical Yearbook during the period of 1992-1999. The major findings were as follows: 1. The annual mean increasing rate of Medical Aid expenditure between 1992 and 1999 was 22.8%, which exceeding that of Medical Insurance expenditure (17.5%) between 1992 and 1999. Since 1998, Medical Aid expenditure increased even more rapidly than in previous years, with the increase in number of Medical Aid beneficiaries. 2. Of Medical Aid expenditure, that of inpatient and outpatient annually increased 24.2% and 22.8% respectively and that of type 1 and type 2 increased annually 28.8% (outpatient) ∼29.9% (inpatient), 14.3% (outpatient) ∼ 15.5% (inpatient). Therefore, Medical Aid expenditure of inpatient and type 1 led the increase of Medical Aid expenditure. 3. Between 1992 and 1997, the frequencies of utilization per beneficiary and the charges per case positively contributed to the increase of Medical Aid expenditure while the number of beneficiaries contributed negatively, but since 1998, the number of beneficiaries increased and positively contributed to the increase of Medical Aid expenditure. 4. According to the analysis of the charges per case, the increase of the price index led to the increase of the charges per case but the days of medication and service intensity also contributed to the increase of the charges per case variably by year. Considering the above findings, factors associated with the Medical Aid system affected the increase of Medical Aid expenditure in addition to the general factors of the increase in medical expenditure. In conclusion, it appears that a more intensive cost containment strategy is required to control rapidly increasing Medical Aid expenditure. For this, more precise analysis and development of policy considering the effect of the number of beneficiaries and the increase of price index is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.399-408
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• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the regional characteristics on the accessibility of emergency care and the impact of emergency medical accessibility on the patients' prognosis and the emergency medical expenditure. Methods: This study used the 13th beta version 1.6 annual data of Korea Health Panel and the statistics from the Korean Statistical Information Service. The sample included 8,119 patients who visited the emergency centers between year 2013 and 2017. The arrival time, which indicated medical access, was used as dependent variable for multi-level analysis. For ordinal logistic regression and multiple regression, the arrival time was used as independent variable while patients' prognosis and emergency medical expenditure were used as dependent variables. Results: The results for the multi-level analysis in both the individual and regional variables showed that as the number of emergency medical institutions per 100 km² area increased, the time required to reach emergency centers significantly decreased. Ordinal logistic regression and multiple regression results showed that as the arrival time increased, the patients' prognosis significantly worsened and the emergency medical expenses significantly increased. Conclusion: In conclusion, the access to emergency care was affected by regional characteristics and affected patient outcomes and emergency medical expenditure.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.143-152
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• 2012

This study analyzes Korea health panel data (2008) (beta version 1.2) of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, and National Health Insurance Corporation to figure out determinants of healthcare expenditure. In result of Multiple Logistic Analysis, in-patents felt burden on the medical expenditure were 70.0%. As to the patients' payment of medical expenditure, patients over 65 years old had 4.765 times higher than those under 14 years, disabled patients 2.778 than non-disabled patients, chronic patients 1.632 times than non-chronic patients, patients belonging to 12 million won ~ 46 million won and under 12 million won in family income had 1.680 times and 2.168 times respectively than patients with over 46 million won, patients in professional recuperation facility 1.546 times than patients in hospital, patients in private medical institutions 1.700 times than patients in national and public medical institutions, patients using upper grade rooms 1.701 times than patients in non-upper grade rooms. As a health care safety net mechanism to protect people from medical expenditure burden, there is the patients' payment ceiling in the National Health Insurance System. Thus, in order to facilitate the patient's payment ceiling, it is required that the level of ceiling is to be specified according to the income level, and self-payment items is to be included.