• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2019

Background : Germany is the first country in the world to introduce modern systems of public health insurance, and the country which most widely uses complementary alternative medicine(CAM) in Europe. In early 21^st century, a large evaluation studies were conducted to include acupuncture in health insurance payments, which were eventually decided. Objectives : This study is to investigate and analyze the process of public policy determination on insurance coverage for acupuncture in German health insurance system. Methods : We collected the data and information through the literature search and from the websites of German government departments and health insurance organizations. To obtain contextual information, German experts of health insurance and acupuncture clinical study were interviewed. Results : As use of acupuncture had been growing, German public health insurers wanted to evaluate the validity of acupuncture coverage and sponsored three evaluation projects for clinical effectiveness of acupuncture using randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and pragmatic trials from 2001 to 2005. For some pain condition, acupuncture was founded not to be effective than sham acupuncture, but more effective than standard care. The federal joint committee of health insurance decided to cover acupuncture for chronic pain of lumbar spine and chronic pain in at least one knee joint due to gonarthrosis. Conclusions : Considering the controversial subject matter in the process of acupuncture's health insurance coverage in Germany, expanding the benefits of Korean medicine in Korea needs to come up with ways to overcome the difficulties of placebo effect, standardization and lack of literature evidence.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.34-57
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• 2004

Universal health insurance normally requires a basic benefit package, whose design intersects with almost all other aspects of the health insurance debate. Despite its central importance, basic benefit package has not received the analysis it deserves in Korea. The issue of how to decide which health services should be delivered and to whom has been a matter for consistent policy debate. Many industrialized countries observed in this study have been dealing explicitly or implicitly with the basic benefit package. The methods vary from having a specific positive list of services (Bismarkian countries) to the use of guidelines (Beveridgian countries). The purpose of this paper is to form the underlying principles and process for determining what is included or left out by getting accurate and representative responses from health-related personnel. Mail survey is used. Economic burden for treatment, seriousness of disease and urgency of treatment are ranked at the first three priorities. Services that had been suspended because of financial crisis in health insurance scheme in 2001 were selected as items which should firstly be expanded into coverage. Diagnostic test against heart disease and vaccination were also selected as items which should additionally belong to the list of covered services.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.62-80
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing the attitude toward the increasing role of private health insurance(PHI). In the Korea Welfare Panel Data 2007, a sample of 1,675 (adjusted by weight value: 1,607) respondents on an opinion on promoting PHI was used in the study. With independent variables including socio-demographic characteristics, health status, health-related behavior, and opinions on welfare service, ordered-probit model was used to analyze the attitude toward PHI. Negative opinion on the increasing role of PHI were responded by 54.6%(n=877) of the respondents, whereas 22.2%(n=373) were positive and 23.2%(n=357) were neutral. Old people, the better off, those with worse self-assessed health status, and those having an experience of health examination tend to have the positive attitude toward the increasing role of PHI. Women, those with chronic diseases or disorders and those who do not agree that comprehensive welfare benefits reduce work incentive showed negative attitude toward PHI. When comparing the needs for PHI before and after medical utilization, ex-ante need tends to strengthen the tendency to support private health insurance. This study will contribute to the discussion on the optimal mix of public and private health insurance in Korea by a better recognition of attitude toward PHI and health care system.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.345-346
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• 2022

2022 was a time when the global healthcare system was challenged and has grown in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In addition, various issues accumulated in the process of quantitative growth have emerged in the Korean healthcare system. For instance, problems of sustainability in health insurance finances and removing bubbles from excessive medical utilization should be urgently resolved as tasks that occurred in the process of expanding the coverage of the health insurance system. The deficit of applicants for the pediatrician residency program suggests that expanding health insurance coverage alone has limitations in providing essential medical services. There is a need to incentivize doctors who provide essential medical care services. In 2023, we hope that efforts to enhance and internally reinforce the healthcare system will be concentrated.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.77-106
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• 1994

This study attempts to evaluate the beneficial equity and operational efficiency of the three Korean medical insurance programmes and thereby suggest directions for their policy improvement. Concepts of the equity and effciency were reviewed to develop indicators for comparative analysis. For the analysis, statistical and financial accounting data for 1991, issued by the National Federation of Medical Insurance and the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation, on the operational status and performances of the programmes, were collected and rearranged to be suited to the purpose of the study. The analysis reveals that beneficial inequity exists between self-employed and employee programs. and that operational inefficiency is prominent in both programms for self-employeds and for Government employees and private school teachers. In order to improve the beneficial inequity of the self-employed program, it is suggested that policies be formulated and implimented toward increasing the program revenue through increasing subsidies from the Government, and through inter- program finance adiustment. For the operational inefficiency of the two programs, it is judged that, toghether with the administrative support and control from the Government and the insurance society bodies, self- efforts be initiated to improve the internal mangement styles and systems of the insurance societies. Finally, from the viewpoint of the structural efficiency, expansion of the preventive insurance benefits by the insurance soceties is recommended both for beneficial equity and operational efficiency.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.210-223
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• 2013

Backgrounds: Escalating pharmaceutical expenditure has threatened the sustainability of National Health Insurance system in Korea. Generic medicines allow patients to access safe, effective, high-quality medicines at low cost, thus insurers could achieve significant financial savings by promotion of generics, if they are priced much lower than the originator. The purpose of this study was to review generic pricing as well as promotion policies in other countries and assess the implication of those policies. Methods: We reviewed the main measures adopted by the developed countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, especially in countries where governments are the largest third-party payers or insurance finance resource is the national health insurance. Results: The foreign countries's experience with generic medicine policy shows that demand-side policies such as physician budgets, international nonproprietary name prescribing, generics substitution, patients co-payment as well as supply-side policies relating to pricing and reimbursement seems to play a critical role in developing the generic medicines market. Conclusion: Various strategy should be implemented to promote generic drug use.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2016

Background: Selective health benefit was introduced for decreasing economic burden of patients. Medical devices with economic uncertainty have been covered as selective health benefit by National Health Insurance since December 2013. We aimed to analyze impact of selective health benefit to medical expenditure and provider behavior focused on electrosurgery (ultrasonic shears, electrothermal bipolar vessel sealers) for gastric cancer patients covered since December 2014. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance claims data of 2,698 patients underwent gastric cancer surgery between August 2014 and March 2015. Medical cost and patient sharing per inpatient day were analyzed to verify that covering electrosurgery increased medical expenditure and changed provider behavior from open surgery to endoscopic or laparoscopic surgery. Additionally, we analyzed the claim rate of medical device or goods relating gastric endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. Results: Medical cost and patient sharing per inpatient day were increased after covering electosurgery as selective health benefit (39,724/1,421 won). However, there were no medical expenditure increases after adjusting claim of electosurgery and patient sharing was decreased 1,057 won especially. The coverage of selective health benefit did not increase the claim rate of medical device or goods related endoscopic or laparoscopic surgery, either. Conclusion: Covering electosurgery decreased patient economic burden and did not change of provider behavior. Expanding selective health benefit is needed to decrease economic burden of severe patients. Further study should evaluate the long term effect with accumulated data.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.467-496
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• 2012

Public participation in the decision making for scarce health resources is important because health policy requires trust based consensus, which can be achieved by public's understanding and involvement of related policies. In the past, opportunities for interaction between health policy decision makers and lay public were rare in Korea. As political impulses towards public participation in health policy have increased, a few of deliberation methods were attempted. However, there is little research, reporting such cases with a critical examination of relevant theories and previous studies. We first critically review the literature on public participation within theories of democracy, governance, and empowerment. Next, we report a case of a citizen council experiment, which was held to examine public's preferences among different benefit options regarding new drugs and medical technologies. Specifically, in an one-day long citizen council with a total of 28 lay public, twelve questions of whether a drug or a technology should be included in the benefit package of health insurance were asked. Pre- and post-surveys investigated participants' perception of public engagement in health policy. Although it was experimental, the citizen council ensured that lay public could be careful enough to rationally compare the costs and benefits of different options and collectively make decisions. Further, results from pre- and post-survey showed a strong willingness of members to be involved in health care decision making. In the conclusion, we emphasize that better theories and methods need to be developed for more cases of citizen participation in health care policy and management.

• 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 Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.539-548
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the awareness and attitude toward health insurance coverage extension to scaling in dental service consumers. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 349 adults in Jeonbuk from May 4 to 15, 2015. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects (7 items), Awareness of the dental health insurance system(8 items), Health insurance system coverage extension to scaling(8 items), Self-perception of oral health(7 items), Recognition toward yearly scaling benefit(10 items). Results: There were significant differences according to age in opinions on the appropriateness of the frequency of yearly scaling benefit, and the respondents who were in their 20s, who were unmarried and who brushed their teeth three times a day had significantly different opinions on the appropriateness of the fee of yearly scaling benefit. Their opinions on the expansion of scaling benefit was significantly affected by age. It implies that scaling should be added to the coverage list of the national health insurance in every age group since there is an increase in periodontal diseases with age. Concerning awareness of dental health insurance policy, the better-educated respondents took a better view of this system as they showed a more positive interest in its policies and shifts. Conclusions: It is desirable to provide more precise information as to eligible age, frequency and cost through public promotion of health coverage of scaling, and the effort to improve the health insurance coverage policy should be made in order to extend the scope of health coverage of scaling in the near future.