• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2017

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate family caregivers' opinions about out-of-pocket payment for long-term care (LTC) facilities, and find the differences in the opinions for family caregivers of all different levels of income. Methods: We used the data of the study on out-of-pocket payment in national long-term care insurance, including 1,552 family caregivers with the elderly in long-term care facilities. Results: The average out-of-pocket payment per month was 511,635 Korean won and distributed from 230,750 to 1,365,570 Korean won. The amount of out-of-pocket payment might be affected by not co-payment but the cost of non-covered service. There were differences in them for family caregivers of all different levels of income. Opinions were surveyed about 5 issues. By levels of income, there were differences in their opinions about 3 issues, the financial burden on LTC, the necessity of reducing out-of-pocket payments, and to be willing to pay more for a high quality service. But there were not different opinions about the interruption of LTC service and staying with LTC facilities. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the range of out-of-pocket payment for LTC facility is wide and it can be a burden to lower income group. It should be to prepare the policies to ease the financial burden and support the appropriate LTC use.

• 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.23 no.2
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• pp.132-144
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the medical expense change and influencing factors after introducing longterm care insurance system. The study period was 2 years before and after introduction of the system. Methods: We analyzed data collected from two divided group lived in Incheon. Four hundred and eighty-five elderly who received long-term care wage for one year were selected for experimental group. For control group, 1,940 elderly were selected by gender and age stratified random sampling. Difference-In-difference analyses was used for evaluating policy effectiveness. Also multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with total medical expenditures. The control variables were demographic variables, economic status, diseases, and medical examination variables. Results: Difference-in-difference analyses showed that total average medical expenses among long-term patients has decreased by 61.85%. Of these, the hospitalization expenses have decreased by 91.63% and the drug expenses have increased by 31.85%. Multiple regression analyses results showed that total average medical expenses among long-term patients have significantly decreased by 46.5% after introducing the long-term care insurance. The hospitalization expenses have significantly decreased by 148.5%, whereas the drug expenses have increased by 53.6%. And outpatient expenses have increased by 10.4%, but the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results showed that total medical expenses and hospitalization expenses have decreased after introducing the long-term care insurance. These results could support the opinion that the health insurance spending among long-term patients will be reduced gradually by long-term care insurance through changing medical demand.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.519-525
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to elaborate the factors and strategies to revitalize the policies of elderly-friendly care industry. The analysis was carried out using the method called DEMATEL. The analytical method is based on the DEMATEL technique. The purpose of this study is to clarify the complexity and unclear relationship between activation factors and factors that constitute the elderly friendly-care industry through the prioritization of policy strengthening. As the result of analysis, it was analyzed that the most intensive activation intensity was the highest total strength of meal service(22.095). Followed by health promotion facilities(19.97) and health care(17.726). The lowest factor is sport(15.896). Therefore, in order to improve and promote these factors, continuous policy measures should be sought that are closely related to facility care services, home care services, and preventive support services.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.53-77
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• 2012

Recently, the low fertility has been deepened because of the increase in women's economic activity, the advancement in standard of living, the rising cost of family maintenance, Therefore master plan for low fertility and aging society which is an overall response strategy for sudden increase in social costs was prepared. The most important point of the second basic plan is the reinforcement in child care support for all families and the balance of work & family. This paper shows the supporting policy for child raising in family and community as reality of policy for low fertility. The paper proposes child care support program(idolbom) as the supporting policy for child raising in family, education for men stimulating father's participation in child rearing, and sharing child care work in community in order to reinforce child care friendly environment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.27-80
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• 1993

It is widely known that patients' utilization pattern for medical care facilities and the patientflow are influenced by multi-factors, such as demographic characteristics, structural characteristics of society, socio-psychological characteristics(value, attitude, norms, culture, health behavior, etc.), economic characteristics(income, medical price, relative price, physician induced demand, etc.), geographical accessibility, systematic characteristics(health care delivery system, payment methods for physician fees, form of health care security, etc.), and characteristics of medical facilities(reliability, quality of medical care, convenience, kindness, tec.). This study was conducted to research the mechanism of patient-flow according to changes of health care system(implementation of national health insurance, health care referral system and regionalization of health care utilization, etc.) and characteristics of medical facilities(ownership of hospital, characteristics of medical services, non-medical characteristics, etc.). In this study, the fact could be ascertained that the patient-flow had been influenced by changes of health care system and characteristics of medical facilities.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.403-426
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to compare the standards and guidelines of long-term care facilities based on the physical environments and human resources in Korea, Japan, USA, and Australia. Ultimately, this study suggests the directions for amendments of long-term care service or running of the facilities in Korea. For achieving this purpose, we reviewed the homepage of national health departments, reports and articles of long-term care service, and acts related with long-term care in each country. This comparisons were carried in terms of physical environments, human resources by long-term care related acts and legal sanctions as means of quality control. This study implies that long-term care service guidelines or standards should be revised for developing the quality of our long-term care services.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.137-140
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• 2011

Research and development (R&D) is very important to acquire new knowledge in various fields. The significance of public R&D is also increasing, especially related to health policy making, establishing basic databases, and enhancing basic and clinical science. The total budget of general public R&D in Korea was approximately ten billon US Dollars in 2008, but the proportion of health care research was just below 10%. In private sectors, it was three times the amount allocated to the public budget. In this article, recent trends in public R&D in Korea, especially related to health care policy and biotechnology are summarized. A brief overview of the application process for a specific policy fund is also described for early-stage researchers in these fields.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.159-174
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the health care expenditure of elderly single and elderly couple households whose head is more than 60 years old. The data analyzed for the study were Korean Retirement and Income Study(KRelS) conducted in 2007 by National Pension Corporation. The major finding of this study were as follows: First, the amount of health care expenditure of elderly single households was lower than that of elderly couple households. However, ratio of health care expenditure to total consumption expenditure of elderly single households was larger than that of elderly couple households. Second, the ratio of health care expenditure in consumption expenditure in this study was larger than the ratios in past analyse showed in the previous studies. Third, common factor affecting on health care expenditure of elderly single and elderly couple households was the existence of the family member with chronic disease or handicap. The health care expenditure of elderly singer households was influenced by income, gender and the ownership of national health insurance. The influence of income for elderly singer households seemed to be greater than for elderly couple households. The variables which affected health care expenditure of elderly couple households were age and housing tenure status. The amount and ratio health care expenditure were increased as the age increases. These results show that the health care expenditures for each groups varied according to socio-demographic variables and health-related behavior variables. It is suggested that there should be a discriminative health care policy for each elderly single and elderly couple households. In addition, the health care policy for the elderly households of which member has a chronic disease is certainly necessary. Especially a health care plan for the elderly single households with lower income is in need. For the elderly couple households, the priority group of health care policy would be the high age group.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.307-322
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• 2015

In most democratic countries, influential professional interest groups often become a part of the iron triangle in the policy making process. One of the typical methods by which professional interest groups participate in policy making process may be by having interest group members in the national assembly, who are sympathetic to the group, implementing policies through legislation. In this study we found that from the Constitutional National Assembly through the 18th National Assembly, 147 members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea have been ex health care professionals. The research analyzed the roles of these members in health care law amendments as requested by the professional organizations. This study analyzed 11 major cases that involved nullification or amendment of legislations in favor of the healthcare profession, against the basic policies of the government. The study showed that in the 11 major cases, policies were amended in the direction intended by the National Assembly members and other organizations with similar interests, which was against the policy stance of the government. However, these cases did not unilaterally imply that the National Assembly has been captured by the interest groups through the legislators with health care professional background; rather, they should be perceived to be influenced by the exhibited loss of governability by the government in respect to healthcare policy decisions, loss of initiative due to lack of controllability, and reversals and inconsistencies of the policies.