• Health Policy and Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-113
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• 2002

We report and analyze the Korean physicians' recent general strike over the implementation of the Separation of Prescribing and Dispensing Practice (SPDP) in which more than 18,000 private clinics and 280 hospitals participated. Utilizing game-theoretic models of bargaining we explain why the Korean physicians were so successful in organizing intense collective action against the government and securing very favorable policy outcomes. In particular, we highlight the role of distributional conflict among social actors in shaping the details of institutional reform. The introduction of the SPDP was a necessary first step in the overall reform of health care system in Korea. However, the SPDP was perceived to be a serious threat to the economic viability of their profession by the vast majority of Korean physicians who had long been relied on the profits from selling medicines to compensate for the loss of income due to the low service fee under the previous health care system. The strong political coalition among heterogeneous physicians enabled them to organize an intense form of collective action, the general strike. Thus, physicians were successful not only in dragging the government to a bargaining table, but also winning in the bargaining and securing an outcome vastly favorable to them. On the other hand, the lack of an overall reform plan in the health care policy area, especially the finance of the National Health Insurance and the need for maintaining an image as a successful reform initiator, motivated the government to reach a quick resolution with the striking physicians.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.9-20
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• 2014

As studies on welfare systems for military families were only focused and limited on improvements of welfare facilities and military apartments, or psycho-therapies for families living apart, the supporting policies and efforts on creating jobs for military families(spouses) were insufficient till now. The best welfare for military spouses is the active well-being through the provision of employment opportunities, rather than providing certain rewards. Especially, South Korea should boost national competitiveness through increasing the engagement rate of women's economic activities. To expand these kinds of employment chances, actual plans to overcome the factors that restrict job opportunities for the families living apart, moving frequently, or living in rural areas should be urged. Accordingly, there should be a change of recognition toward military welfare service, enactment of applying discharged soldier's expanded employment programs for military spouses, cooperation with municipal governments and relevant institutions for creating jobs, and provision of promising job openings in association with a military reform. To achieve these, the cooperation of the government agencies, municipal governments, and military units are being emphasized.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 2005

The purpose of the present study is to seek measures to increase the quality of farmers lives by considering the results of a survey on the welfare demand for them when setting up policy. The results are as follows: First, though many concerns and policies to control the rural exodus have been exerted in terms of maintaining agricultural communities, which is one of critical components for the development of Korean agriculture and farming villages, the rural exodus became more and more serious. It is urgently required, therefore, for the Korean administration to correspond actively to the reasons why farmers depart their villages, such as bad prospects, low incomes or problems with their children's education. Second, as the number of females who take part in farming has increased, it is necessary to reform the rural educational environment. In addition, as the agricultural community develops, and other industries flow in, the greater the worries about crime, and consequently, it is necessary to equip a local safety system, share information on job opportunities, and provide educational opportunities. Third, since rural districts nay have financial difficulties because of old-aged and small-sized farmhouse, it is necessary to mainly support the welfare of the aged and lower-income farmers, considering the characteristics of each group and area. Fourth, over half of the farmers responded that they cannot bear to pay the national pension and health insurance premiums, and therefore it should be considered to reduce the pension and premium, or to readjust the insurance value appropriate to the level of the farmer's income. Fifth, despite a number of agricultural policies now in place, farmers desire a policy which can promise a prosperous vision for Korean agriculture and the facilities needed for education and health. It is necessary for the administration to set up policies that are characterized by locality with the view that farmers are not mere recipients, but participants in the policies.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.231-251
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• 2014

Recently, Korean government documented the plan to cope with the situation related to rich pensioners of Basic old-age pension. The purpose of this paper is to verify that how many rich pensioners are existing and to evaluate government reform plan's validity and effect. Main results are as follows; firstly, if the definition of rich pensioners is on the top 10%, the proportion of them would form 2.9% of total. And then, an amount of expenditure for them is only 2.6% of total. Secondly, in terms of disposable income, debt, and transfer income from child, the household who would be applied by government's plan is not richer than other household who is in the same living standard. And then, if the government's plan enforced, the effect might be very small. Lastly, the plan of government will discriminate against persons who support their parent. As a result, Basic old-age pension will be worsen. This paper should underline that the government's reform is only the 'hidden' retrenchment strategy in order to introduce a standard of the obligation to support own parent in the state without scientific prediction and serious discussion of negative public opinion. That is why, this is the same as the 'Trojan Horse'.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of New Deal under the New Labour government in Britain and examines the nature of New Deal with respect to workfare. The time difference of five years after the New Deal was put into effect shows that New Deal has contributed not only to include the socially excluded groups such as the young unemployed, the long-term unemployed, single parents, and the disabled into the labour market, but also to decrease the amount of income-based benefits providing for working generation. It can be said that the nature of New Deal under the New Labour is near to human capital development model rather than labour force attachment model. New Deal provides the opportunity of policy learning for the countries which pursue the reform of social security system to moving welfare beneficiaries being able to work into jobs. Policy learning can be summed up as follows. First, imposing mutual responsibility and obligations on unemployed person should be accompanied by implementing active labour market programmes of education and job training. Second, the delivery system which administrates workfare programmes should be decentralized in a local society. The cooperation between local government and enterprisers will be critical in implementing various employment programmes and moving unemployed person into jobs. Third, the case management for individual participating in workfare programme is necessary. The personal adviser should continue to provide employment services for the unemployed until he or she get a job and enter the state of self-reliance. Finally, the workfare programme should be firmly backed by the political leadership in order to overcome the oppositions of beneficiary groups under the existing social security system.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.127-153
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• 2004

In the absence of a male provider the state must decide how far and under what conditions it will provide for the mother and her children. In the case of lone mothers, there are three main possible sources of income: the labour market, the absent father, and the state. However, the relative proportions of these three sources vary significantly from country to country as well as from individual to individual within the group of lone parents. Until very recently the UK has been alone among countries of the EU in allowing lone parents to draw benefits without making themselves available for work so long as they have dependent children. However, in the 1990s, the UK government introduced major changes to his policies regarding lone parents. The UK government attempted to restrict the role of the state as a source of income for lone parent families. At the beginning of the 1990s, the emphasis in the UK was put on securing more money from 'absent fathers' to maintain. However, the policy was unsuccessful and by the mid-1990s attention to the only other possible source of income for lone parent families, the labour market, was stepped up, notwithstanding the ambivalence of politicians about the desirability of women with young children entering employment. From 1998 the Labour government introduced a series of reforms aimed at reducing both worklessness and poverty by raising welfare payments to families both in and out of work, improving financial incentives to work and introducing a more proactive welfare system. The results presented here suggest that these policies have raised the employment rates of lone parents by around 5 percentage points, or 80,000. These employment gains have come from a welfare reform package that does not require lone parents to search for jobs, or uses time limits in welfare programmes. In addition these gains have been achieved despite generous increases in welfare payments for lone parents who do not work. These earnings gains combined with the more generous welfare are making rapid progress in reducing lone parents' poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.79-100
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• 2012

This paper aims to analyze the meaning and conceptual tension contained in the definition of social services prescribed by recently amended Framework Act on Social Security(FASS) by examining various terminologies of social services in Korea. In Korea the term of social services has had at least four meanings since it has begun to be used during Participatory Government. Of these, the meaning of social services in FASS is closest to 'social serives as social-jobs'. While, as has this meaning, social services in FASS is defined as very comprehensive one, it also has its conceptual tension. On the one hand, FASS comes to have the orientation to include immensely wide fields such as welfare, health, employment, housing, culture and environment within social service. However on the other hand FASS still has the orientation to limit social services to traditional social welfare services. Unless re-amending the recently amended FASS, the conceptual tension resulted from these two conflicting orientations will be likely to continue. And this might raise the need both to reform the organization of Ministry of Health and Welfare and exiting delivery systems of social services and to develop theoretical and practical principles providing basis for tailored social services, which in turn poses important challenges to social welfare discipline. To meet these challenges it is necessary to cooperate between micro and macro approaches.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.35
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• pp.87-113
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• 2006

This study aims to theoretically examine the validity of argument that market-opening will improve the audience welfare of media and cultural contents. To accomplish its purpose, first of all, this study classifies the spectrum of approaches on cultural market-opening in Korea. Then, it examines, by the concept of public goods, whether market-opening can bring on economic gains for audience as consumer. Finally, this study inspects the profit and loss for audience as citizen which will be brought on by market-opening on the grounds of democratic value. As a result of this study, the improvement of economic efficiency and competence, the expansion of consumer‘s choices, the preservation of cultural value that the positive approach on market-opening is promising cannot be justified theoretically and logically. Therefore, at least in theoretically, the conclusion that market-opening cannot improve the audience welfare is deduced. However, the objection of market-opening cannot be related to the distorted protectionism of nation culture. On the contrary, this study suggests the condition of market-opening debate must be a opportunity to reconsider and reform of cultural diversity in Korea.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to comprehensively compare the trends of health administration and health policy in the field of health care using the semantic network analysis in the inaugural address of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of each regime in Korea. Methods: This study used a language network analysis method that uses Korean Key Words In Context (KrKwic) program and NetMiner program in sequence. The analysis was conducted by Minister Hwa-joong Kim during the Moo-hyun Roh government, Minister Jae-hee Jeon during the Myung-bak Lee government, Minister Young Jin of Geun-hye Park government and Government Jae-in Moon's inaugural address of Neung-Hoo Park Minister, respectively. Results: The key words differentiated by each regime are that the Moo-hyun Roh Government's Minister Hwa-joong Kim had high connection centrality values in the words 'balanced development', 'comprehensive' and 'reform'. Minister Jae-Hee Jeon of Myung-bak Lee Government had high connection centrality values in the words 'poverty' and 'return'. In the case of Minister Young Jin of Geun-hye Park Government had high connection centrality values in the words 'demand', 'Customized' and 'Life cycle'. In the case of Minister Neung-Hoo Park of Jae In Moon Government had high connection centrality values in the words 'Welfare state', 'Embracing' and 'Soundness'. Conclusions: If the role of health administration in the health care field and the health care policies are constantly changed according to the policies of each regime, it is inconsistent and it is difficult to approach from the long term perspective for public health promotion. In the future, health policy should be developed and implemented with a long-term perspective and consistency based on the consensus and participation of the people with less influence on the change and direction of each government's policies.

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.457-473
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• 2004

This study purports to contribute to existing literatures and debates about the future of Korean public pension system by introducing the cases of pension privatization in eight Latin American countries. Following the Chilean reform in 1981, many Latin American nations to a varying degree replaced their public pension system with private one, and the performance of those private systems started to emerge. Overall, pension privatization does not appear to be the panacea that some of its advocates have argued. While it seems to remedy existing problems, it is creating new ones. As an unprecedented policy experiment, the pension privatization in many Latin American countries implies that there are a number of risks in the path of privatization.