• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2016

This paper examines the effects of a universal childcare subsidy on childcare decisions and mothers' employment by using Korea's policy reform of 2012, which provided a full childcare subsidy to all children aged 0 to 2. I find that the introduction of a universal childcare subsidy increased the use of childcare centers by children aged 0-2, which led to less maternal care compared to that provided to children aged 3-4. However, the expanded subsidy had little effect on mothers' labor supply. Moreover, the policy effects vary by individual and household characteristics. The effects of the expanded subsidy are mainly found in low-income households and less educated mothers. Highly educated mothers and high-income households are likely to focus more on the quality of childcare service. These results imply that a simple reduction in childcare costs would bring only limited effects on mothers' time allocation behavior; thus, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of childcare services.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.197-217
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• 2010

This study investigated the performance of the child care policies implemented by the former government and analyzes some changes in child care policies by the new government in Korea. The criteria for evaluating child care policies of both governments were based on suggestions gleaned from OECD policy review papers on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in 2004 and 2006. As suggested by the OECD, the input of financial investment in public sectors, universal approaches to child care, measures of quality programs, efforts for improving the work environment of child care workers and selecting effective ways of providing financial support for child care were applied in order to evaluate the child care policies in Korea. A number of policy documents and literature published by both governments from 2003-2009 were reviewed in order to evaluate and compare the former child care policies with the more recent ones. The child care policies enacted by the former Korean government were characterized as the remarkable increases in financial investment to establish a child care infrastructure for quality programs and services, and efforts to enact universal approaches to child care, policy making based on scientific data on child care. These advances were tempered by the observation that despite all these improvements, both investment and expansion in the public child care sector were far below sufficient levels. In contrast, some changes in the child care policies by the new government were criticized in terms of weakening public child care, reinforcing private child care and it's conservative financial support system.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.33-59
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• 2013

This study has examined an analysis of discourses on free child care policy for 0-2 year old children in Korea. The author has searched articles in daily news papers of "free child care for 0-2years old" using Korea Integrated News Database System and Chosun archive. For the analysis, articles from March 2012 to May 2013 has been collected. From this study, it has been suggested that discourses has been showed with diverse issues such as home care allowance, working mom vs full-time housewives, universal welfare vs selective welfare. These discourses has developed with the ideologies of conservative and progressive perspectives. The suggestions of this study will contribute to the development and practice of a free child care policy for 0-2 year children through reflective discourse analysis.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.1-32
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• 1992

The Canadian experience-universal government health insurance administeredby the ten provinces and two territories with some fiscal and policy variations-suggests the possibility of more effectve and efficient health care delivery system. The central purpose of the Canadian health in surance was to reduce and hopefully eliminate financial barriers to medical care. In this it succeeded. But it also produced varous kinds of unexpected side-effects on cost and quality. The Federal and Provincial Governments of Canada continue to exert theri efforts to ameliorate these problems. The lesson from Canada is that the health care revenue should be raised at the national level and managed at the regional level, and the regional healthcare financing organization has to take over the functions of the public health center. These alternatives is expected to make the Korean health care delivery system more efective and efficient, and to achieve health for all. This paper also discussed the policy agenda for implementing such alternatives in Korea.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.122-140
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• 2019

Providing free primary care to everyone is an important goal pursued by many countries under universal health care programs. Countries like India need to efficiently utilize their limited capacities towards this purpose. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, patients incur substantial travel and out-of-pocket expenses for getting primary care from publicly-funded facilities. We propose a set-covering optimization model to assist health policy-makers in managing existing capacity in a better way. Decision-making should consider upgrading centers with better potential to reduce patient expenses and reallocating capacities from less preferred facilities. A multinomial logit choice model is used to predict the preferences. In this article, a brief background and literature survey along with the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model are presented. The working of the model is illustrated with the help of numerical experiments.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.256-266
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• 2017

Background: Primary health care (PHC) plays a major role to ensure the basic right and equal distribution of the essential health care services. This study presents comparative analyses of PHC in Korea and Uzbekistan, discusses the existing scenario and the challenges, and provides recommendations. Methods: This study reviewed secondary data from Korea's National Statistical Information Service and the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistic, regulatory legislation, research reports, and policy papers by research and international institutions. We focus on comparing input and outcome health data, PHC structure, and health expenditure. Results: Overall health status of the population in Korea is better than in Uzbekistan; both countries achieved more than 95% immunization coverage. The reforms implemented in both countries provide initial health care service delivery. However, there are several challenges such as the distribution of the staff between urban and rural areas and interest of the graduates on specialization rather than working in PHC system. Conclusion: PHC plays an important role in the provision of medical services to the population, addressing both health and social problems; it is the best tool for achieving universal coverage for basic health needs of the population. The community health practitioners in Korea and nurses in Uzbekistan plays main role in universal coverage through providing essential health care services. Continuous reform of the PHC system should be directed to strengthen the capacity of the PHC staff in health promotion knowledge and activities as well as to encourage population to improve their own health.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2018

Health care has two different facets. One is commodity and another is a right of human being. Health care as a commodity is utilized by demand approach in market. Demand is determined by economic factors such as price and income. From the last third of the 19th century until the early 1920s, priority of sickness insurance was replacing the income that workers lost as a result of illness and injury. By the 1920s, the capacity of applied biological and medical science was remarkably developed. Development of medical science stimulated the cost of medical care, and the burden of increased medical care cost required new role of medical care security system. In 1942, Beveridge report was published in United Kingdom, and health care was considered as a right of human being. In 1948, United Nations declared heath care as a right in the Universal Declaration of Human Right. In most countries introduced new medical care security policy based on health care as a right. The viewing health care as a commodity must be shifted toward need based care as a right. Need were understood to rest on demographic, epidemiological, scientific, and medical knowledge factors. Bring needed care to the population could best be achieved institutionally by a hierarchy of provider organizations, guided by planning bodies, which would provide comprehensive benefits. In Korea, health care in social health insurance (SHI) is considered as a commodity not a right. However, health policies under SHI must be need approach based on health care as a right. Mismatch between health policies and ideology of SHI made big troubles. It is important to realize ideology of SHI for good health policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.273-294
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• 2023

Background: Most developed countries are working to improve their universal health coverage systems. This study investigates regional disparities in unmet healthcare needs and their causes in South Korea. Additionally, it compares the unmet healthcare needs rate in South Korea with that of 33 European countries. Methods: The analysis incorporates information from 13,359 adults aged 19 or older, using data from the Korea Health Panel. The dependent variables encompass the experience of unmet healthcare needs and the three causes of occurrence: "burden of medical expenses," "time constraints," and "lack of care." The primary variable of interest is the region of residence, while control variables encompass 14 socio-demographic, health, and functional characteristics. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis, accounting for the sampling design, is conducted. Results: The rate of unmet healthcare needs in Korea is 11.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0%-13.3%), which is approximately 30 times higher than that of Austria (0.4%). The causes of unmet healthcare needs, ranked in descending order, are "lack of care," "time constraints," and "burden of medical expenses." Predictive probabilities for experiencing unmet healthcare needs and each cause differ significantly between regions. For instance, the probability of experiencing unmet healthcare needs due to "lack of care" is approximately 10 times higher in Gangwon-do (13.5%; 95% CI, 13.0%-14.1%) than in Busan (1.3%; 95% CI, 1.3%-1.4%). The probability due to "burden of medical expenses" is approximately 14 times higher in Seoul (4.1%; 95% CI, 3.6%-4.6%) compared to Jeollanam-do (0.3%; 95% CI, 0.2%-0.4%). Conclusion: Amid rapid sociodemographic transitions, South Korea must make significant efforts to alleviate unmet healthcare needs and the associated regional disparities. To effectively achieve this, it is recommended that South Korea involves the National Assembly in healthcare policy-making, while maintaining a centralized financing model and delegating healthcare planning and implementation to regional authorities for their local residents-similar to the approaches of the United Kingdom and France.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.761-770
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine improvements of after-school care policy for elementary school-age children based on children's rights in the community. After-school care is important to support children right of survive and protect, as well as the right to development and participation. To support integrated child rights through the policy, local government's duty is growing in the Covid-19 world. Therefore, the main policy of out-of-school care is analyzed from the perspective of children's rights. Current after-care policy focuses on the right of protection privileges. Providing a safe facility is important, but there is a lack of policy design to expand children's options to learn by various activity which can be utilized with community resources as care contents. The role of government to this is requested to supplement accountability, fairness, democracy and public interest more than over quantitative expansion of services. This study presented an alternative based on the universal elementary care providing happy after-school hours.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.387-398
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• 2021

Moon Jae-in Care can be seen as a 2.0 version of Roh Moo-Hyun Care. Just as Roh Care failed to achieve its coverage rate goal and 30% share of public beds, Moon Care also failed to achieve its expected goal. The reason is that it followed Roh Care's failed strategy. Failure to control non-covered services has led to a long way to achieve a 70% coverage rate and induced the expansion of voluntary indemnity insurance, resulting in increased public burden. The universal coverage of non-covered services caused an immediate backlash from doctors. And Moon government also failed to control the private insurance market. The expansion of publicly owned beds has not become realized and has not obtained public support. Above all, it failed to overcome the resistance of doctors and failed to obtain consent from budget power groups in the cabinet for public investment. It was also insufficient to win the support of civic groups. Communication with interested groups failed and the role of private health care providers was neglected. The next government should also continue to strengthen health care coverage, but it should prioritize preventing medical poor and create a consensus with both medical providers and consumers for the control of non-covered services. Ahead of the super-aged society, the establishment of linkage between medical services and long-term care and visiting health care or welfare services is an important task. All public and private provisions and resources should be utilized in the view of a comprehensive public health perspective, and public investment should be input in sectors where public medical institutions can perform more effective functions. The next government, which will be launched in 2022, should design a new paradigm for health care in the face of a period of transformation, such as the coming super-aged society in 2026 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and recognize that the capabilities of the health care system represent the nation's overall capacity.