Thirty years have passed since the health insurance introduced in Korea. It was initiated for workers who were employed in a business entity of which employees were more than 500 in 1977. And just 12 years after, the national health insurance for all ...
Thirty years have passed since the health insurance introduced in Korea. It was initiated for workers who were employed in a business entity of which employees were more than 500 in 1977. And just 12 years after, the national health insurance for all the people was implemented in 1989. However, the national health insurance has attached importance not to qualitative growth but to quantitative growth with its hasty implementation. In this vein, it has placed a great deal of weight on the stability of insurance finance with a low-share low-benefit policy. So patients' share is very high. OECD countries' average share is 20%, whereas Korea is 36.9%―the second-highest―next to Mexico (50.6%). The coverage rate of critical ailments is especially low and for cancer―a representative critical ailment, it is 46.9% in 2004. Cancer is the first cause of death in Korea and generates higher cost in treatment than any other ailments. With cancer treatment, household economy goes bankrupt and people degenerate into poverty. When medical care patients in the low-income bracket get critical ailments, such as cancer, they cannot approach to medical treatment due to the economical burden of patient's share. By taking the fast-increasing incidence of cancer into consideration (increases average 4% annually from 2000), there shaped public opinion that the central government had to establish and operate a countermeasure against cancer. In this vein, the central government lowered hospitalized patients' personal share from 20% to 10% as a part of coverage expansion policy in September 2005. And coverage ailments were expanded. The central government announced that the coverage rate of critical patients would be increased to above 75%―the average rate of OECD countries―by 2008.
In this vein, the aim of this study was to examine cancer patients' annual medical expenses, insurers' pay and non-coverage medical expenses by patients' qualifications (health insurance, the first-class medical care, and the second-class medical care) for two years―before and after the initiation of coverage expansion policy in 2005, centering on patients who were hospitalized in a public comprehensive medical care agency. The investigator established a hypothesis that cancer patients' personal share would be decreased after the initiation of the policy.
Study findings are as follows:
First, insurers' share has increased from 55% to 72% for the health insurance, and from 86% to 90% for the first-class medical care. In case of non-surgery patients, insurers' share has increased from 62% to 77% for the health insurance, and from 94% to 96% for the first-class medical care. In case of medical care patients, the difference is meager compared to health insurance patients.
Second, surgery patients' personal share has decreased from 14% to 8% for the health insurance. The first-class medical care patients have shared nothing, but some of them have shared 1~2% for patient qualification conversion expenses or meal charges. Non-surgery patients' personal share has decreased from 17% to 9% for the health insurance, and from 14% to 9% for the second-class medical care.
Third, surgery patients' non-coverage personal share has decreased from 30% to 21% for the health insurance, and from 14% to 8% for the first-class medical care. Non-surgery patients' non-coverage personal share has decreased from 19% to 14% for the health insurance, from 5% to 4% for the first-class medical care, and from 13% to 10% for the second-class medical care.
Fourth, surgery patients' personal total share has decreased from 44% to 29% for the health insurance, and from 14% to 8% for the first-class medical care. Non-surgery patients' personal total share has decreased from 36% to 23% for the health insurance, and from 27% to 19% for the second-class medical care. But there is no difference in the first-class medical care.
By patients' qualifications, the hospitalized days, total medical expenses and insurers' share increased, whereas the patients' coverage personal share and total personal share, and non-coverage share decreased. However, there is meager difference in medical care patients' personal share. Much proportion of non-coverage personal share is occupied by the expenses of optional medical treatment expenses and high-class sick room charges.
Based on study findings, the investigator presents following future study directions:
First, studies on the cause of increasing hospitalized days before and after the initiation of the coverage expansion policy for cancer patients must be carried out.
Second, comparative studies on the difference of personal share between public and private hospitals before and after the initiation of the coverage expansion policy for critical patients must be carried out by patients' qualifications.
Third, studies on the changes of patients' sense of economical burden for the personal share before and after the initiation of the coverage expansion policy for critical patients must be carried out by patients' qualifications.
Studies on the changing trend of critical patients' personal share, including that of cancer patients, can be carried out on the basis of patients' qualifications and care agencies in the future. This will provide the government a useful data for the direction of medical care policies.