건강보험법제의 현황과 과제 = Current Status and Problems of the National Health Insurance Act

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of “National Health Insurance Act” is to improve the citizens’ health and promote social security by providing the citizens with insurance benefits for, prevention of disease and injury, medical examination, medical treatment, rehabilitation and childbirth, death, and improvement of health.
The first public medical insurance act enacted in 1963 and according to the Amendment in 1976 became the health care insurance compulsorily. The national health insurance act enacted in 1999 and amended recently in 2003.
Though the national health insurance system has developed since it was introduced, the system has some problems to be solved. The national health insurance faces difficulties with a rapid cost expansion, inefficiency, instable budget and insufficient health care for older people. First of all, efficiency and financial stability have to be provided for the national health insurance. And the private health insurance may play complementary role to the national health insurance. The proportion of the population above age 65 increase from 8.7% in 2004(aging society) to about 14.4% in 2019(aged society) and is projected to reach 20% in 2026(super aged society). According to this demographic development we need reform of national health insurance act with reconstructing the elderly health care system and a new health care system for older people.