The South Korean government is weighing a plan to raise the fees that the National Health Insurance pays for over 1,000 major surgeries, including critical cancer operations. These procedures are currently under-compensated, contributing to a significant imbalance in the country’s medical compensation system. In South Korea, direct medical services like examinations and surgeries are priced low, while equipment-based tests are relatively expensive. For example, the fee for cerebral aneurysm surgery is roughly equivalent to that for eyelid surgery, around 2.9 million won (approximately $2,130).
Specialties like pediatrics, obstetrics, and emergency medicine, which involve life-saving procedures, are in crisis due to low fees and poor working conditions. Despite doctors’ consistent appeals for fee adjustments over the past two decades, the government’s responses have been largely superficial. This issue is a central factor in the ongoing medical crisis, which has persisted for the past six months. If the Ministry of Health and Welfare had addressed these fee disparities earlier, doctors would likely have been less resistant to the proposed increase in medical school admissions.
Prioritizing the normalization of essential medical fees is long overdue. Without significantly raising these fees, increasing the number of doctors won’t encourage them to enter critical medical fields. The government’s plan to transform large hospitals into ‘specialist-centered hospitals’ will remain unfulfilled under the current low-fee structure.
The government is reviewing options for fee increases, with decisions expected by January next year. However, given the urgency, this timeline seems too slow. Earlier this year, the government announced a plan to spend 10 trillion won ($7.35 billion) over five years, with 2 trillion won annually allocated to increasing essential medical fees. However, the absence of detailed plans has left doctors skeptical. The government already has cost analysis data for medical procedures; quickly presenting specific fee increase proposals would help build trust with the medical community. Other issues—such as expanding medical school admissions, strengthening regional healthcare, establishing safety nets for medical accidents, and reforming non-covered services and health insurance—will only be meaningful if the normalization of essential medical fees is addressed first.
