Abstract
Health insurance was introduced for employees in large corporations in the Republic of Korea in 1977 and incrementally extended to employees in small businesses and the self-employed. Since 1989, the country’s national health insurance (NHI) has covered the entire population. NHI experienced a major change in 2000 when it became a single payer by merging firm-based insurance societies for employees and region-based societies for the self-employed. The insurance contribution is proportional to income and shared equally by the employer and the employee. Government provides a partial subsidy for the self-employed and fully subsidizes the premium for the poor. Poor people in the Medical Aid program are exempted from copayments, and the elderly and patients with chronic and catastrophic conditions qualify for discounted copayments for outpatient care.1
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