• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.90-109
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• 2008

Government has extended the benefit coverage and reduced out-of-pocket (OOP) payment for cancer patients in 2005. This paper intends to examine the impact of the above policy on the equity in health care utilization. This paper analyzed the national health insurance data and compared the health care utilization of cancer patients before and after the policy change for people with 10 different income levels. For the equity in health care utilization, we examined the change in concentration index (CI) for visit days, inpatient days, and health expenditure. In the case of outpatient care, CI of visit days and health expenditure were positive(favoring the rich) in both regional and employee health insurance members and both 'before' and 'after' the policy change. CI values rarely changed after the policy change, and the policy change seems to have little impact on the equity of outpatient care utilization except expenditure of regional subscriber. In the case of inpatient care, CI of inpatient days was negative and CI of health expenditure was positive in both regional and work subscriber and both 'before' and 'after' the policy change. After the policy change, CI of inpatient expenditure in both groups of members decreased. CI of inpatient days changed in the direction favoring the poor in regional insurance members, but it rarely changed in employee insurance members. These results suggest that the policy of reducing OOP payment has a positive impact and reduced the inequity particularly in the utilization of inpatient care of cancer patients.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.342-356
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• 2019

Background: The objectives of the study are to find out the effect of the implementing reform in three Central Asian countries, identify its impact on health status and health care delivery systems. This study address to identify strong and weak points of the health systems and provide a recommendation for further health care organization. Methods: A comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of implemented policy on health care system efficiency and equity. Secondary data were collected on selected health indicators using information from the World Health Organization Global Health Expenditure Database, European Health Information Platform, and World Bank Open Data. Results: In terms of population status, countries achieved relatively good results. Infant mortality and under-5 mortality rate decreased in all countries; also, life expectancy increased, and it was more than 70 years. Regulations of the health systems are still highly centralized, and the Ministry of Health is the main organ responsible for national health policy developing and implementation. Among the three countries, only Kyrgyzstan was successful in introducing a national health system. Distribution of health expenditure between public expenditure and out-of-pocket payments was decreased, and out-of-pocket payments were less the 50% of total health expenditure in all countries, in 2014. Conclusion: After independent, all three countries implemented a certain number of the policy reform, mostly it was directed to move away from the old the Soviet system. Subsequent reform should be focused on evidence-based decision making and strengthening of primary health care in terms of new public health concepts.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.129-151
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• 2001

This study was conducted to describe trends of health services research (HSR) in Korea since 1968 and analyse the relevance of HSR to changes in health policy. Research methods are as follows: firstly, HSR articles were selected from 4 HSR related journals implicitly. Secondly, classification system of HSR was developed and then applied to previously selected papers in order to describe research trends. Finally, the frequency rankings of articles in research areas were compared with rankings in order of the importance of research area rated by experts. As a resesult, HSR articles have increased with time and three main research areas are health programme, health care financing, and health care organization/management. And many articles have been related to the efficiency and quality of health care since 1990. It seems HSR articles had little relevance to changes in health policy and policy environment. Especially, the recently disputed policy topic, namely the separation of prescription from disposing, has not received little attention since 1990. These findings suggest there is an urgent need for the reflection on HSR direction in Korea.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.77-92
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• 2011

Objectives : This study examined the health policy researchers' needs and their accessibility towards health insurance claim datasets according to their academic capacity. Methods : An online questionnaire to capture relevant proxy variables for academic needs, accessibility, and research capacity was constructed based on previous studies. The survey was delivered to active health policy researchers through three major scholarly associations in South Korea. Seven-hundred and one scholars responded while the survey as open for 12 days (starting on December 20th, 2010). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were carried out. Results : Regardless of the definition for operational needs, the prevalent needs of survey respondents were not met with the current provision of claim data. Greater research capacity was shown to be correlated with increased demand for claim data along with a positive correlation between attempts to obtain claim datasets and research capacity. A greater research capacity, however, was not necessarily correlated with better accessibility to the claim data. Conclusions : The substantial unmet need for claim data among the healthcare policy research community calls for establishing proactive institutions which could systematically prepare and make available public datasets and provide call-in services to facilitate proper handling of data.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.123-124
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• 2022

With the inauguration of a new government, expectations for policy changes are also rising. In the hope that this will serve as an opportunity to improve health care policy, I would like to outline the principles strategies. First, considering the growing socioeconomic impact of the health care sector, the government's policy priorities should be notably increased compared to the past. Second, policy improvement measures based on evidence should be sought instead of dwelling on presidential pledges. While easing regulations, we should improve the quality of regulatory approaches. Therefore, it is a time when efforts are needed to strengthen the stability of policies in response to economic crises.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.33-52
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• 2009

Health promotion policies have needed to assess in detailed and evidence-based work to set a policy goal and clear future directions of health promotion in Korea. To identify the major factors related with health promotion, we assessed the associations between public health outcome (potential years of life loss, PYLL) and national health determinants. For this purpose, we used a pooled cross sectional time-series regression analysis with corrected fixed effect models involving sixteen member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development during the period 1970 to 2001. The PYLL was positively associated with tobacco and alcohol consumption (model 1 and 2) and calories intake (model 2 and 3) while the PYLL was negatively associated with GDP, fruit and vegetable intake (model 2), number of doctors (model 3), coverage rates of health care security, and elderly population rates (model 4). In conclusion, health behaviors related with tobacco, alcohol, and nutrition were significant health determinants for health outcome. Overall analysis results of this study will provide a guidance toward improved macro- and micro-policy development for future health promotion policy in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Health Policy and Administration Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.299-321
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Health Policy and Administration Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.322-339
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• 2005

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.183-184
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• 1995

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.29-36
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• 2013

Purpose: Currently meaning and the needs of the times for the mental health are extensively changing. Contemporary needs for mental health has led to a change in the mental health policy and mental health facilities. But Change on Most of the mental health facilities have been focused on quantitative increase. So, changes in mental health facilities due to changes in mental health policy are needed for the study. This study investigate to the mental health facility system through this changes. Methods: In order to determine the flow of Mental health policy in Korea the mental health laws and reports were investigated Results: the result of this study can be summarized into two points. Korea's mental health policy has changed from the rehabilitation of the mentally ill to the prophylaxis of all the people. So, mental health facilities are changing form rehabilitation facilities in the private sector to public mental health center. Especially, mental medical institutions and mental health center are changing to requirement for the needs of the times. Mental medical institutions are changing from inpatient to outpatient and mental health center are changing from the rehabilitation of the mentally ill to the prophylaxis of all the people. Implications: Understand the flow of mental health policy, mental health facilities and the corresponding need.