South Korea: Govt looking at getting health insurers to cut premiums
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Aug 2017
South Korea Life & Health Regulation
The government will seek a legal base to pressure private insurers to cut down medical insurance premiums to help alleviate the cost burden on subscribers amid coverage expansion of national health insurance.
The State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee has announced that legislation will be introduced this year to align public and private health insurance plans. The panel believes private insurers are benefiting from decreased payouts to subscribers as the government has expanded coverage of the universal health insurance scheme, reported Pulse News.
Koreans are required to subscribe to the national health insurance programme, but need to buy health insurance plans from private insurers too to cover medical expenses not reimbursed by the mandatory insurance scheme.
Mr Park Kwang-on, the Committee spokesman, said a consultative body for public and private insurance schemes will soon be formed for discussion. Data on medical insurance and non-reimbursement items of the national health insurance will be provided. Benefits paid by private insurers following the expanded coverage of the national health insurance will be statistically validated.
The government will provide statistical grounds on which private insurers can lower their medical insurance premiums. A