The construction of the medical insurance system in the Republic of Korea, 1963–1989

Abstract

The task of bringing a whole population into medical insurance coverage is a challenging one for a country's health policy makers. The outcomes of health policy differ significantly from one country to another depending on each state's socio‐economic and political background. Health policy in Korea is to a great extent incremental in character and the consequence of a variety of causal events. This is why it has been difficult to apply the established social welfare theories to the Korean case. In any event, the Korean national medical insurance system, constructed between 1963 and 1989, reveals some similarity to that in Japan, i.e., compartmentalization of financial and administrative units as well as inequality in contributions and benefits. The system also reflects Korea's traditional Confucian value which emphasizes mutual dependence between family members.