Press Release

Date: February 1, 2024

Contact: Chi Younsuh / Foreign Media Spokesperson (+82-44-202-2048 / cys12@korea.kr)

The Eighth Public Engagement Roundtable:

Healthcare Reform to Save Lives and Local Communities

A Policy Package to Bring Essential Healthcare Back from

the Brink of Collapse
- MOHW announces a four-throng healthcare reform package: more healthcare
professionals; stronger local healthcare; safety nets for medical malpractice; and fairer
compensation framework -
- The package includes a new presidential committee to add momentum to the initiative -

On February 1, 2024 (Thursday), the Republic of Korea (ROK) government

held the eighth public engagement roundtable on “Healthcare Reform to Save
Lives and Local Communities” at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

The roundtable saw a wide attendance from citizens, healthcare professionals,

and experts, who joined the event to explain the reality of essential healthcare
services in local communities and discuss fundamental solutions to address
them. The participants, which included parents of young children and heads of
small and medium clinics, pointed out the need for more healthcare
professionals and stronger local healthcare to ensure wider access to pediatric
and emergency care.

- 1 -
Healthcare professionals and experts stressed the need for increasing
compensation for essential healthcare services and a more stable healthcare
environment, which included lowering the burden of malpractice litigation so
that professionals can focus on treating their patients.

The government promised to implement ambitious healthcare reforms by fully

accommodating the inputs from various participants so that all citizens can
access the best quality healthcare services close to home whenever they need
them.

As fundamental solutions to protect essential healthcare, the government

announced a policy package setting forth the following goals.

First, the government will increase the number of healthcare professionals in

the country. With Korea expected to face a shortage of around 15,000
healthcare professionals in 2035, the government will expand the admission
quota for medical schools starting in 2025 and build a system to adjust the
quota on a regular basis based on estimated demands. In addition, the
government plans to increase support for better training at medical schools and
improve the medical training and licensing framework so doctors can build
sufficient clinical competency. Other plans include reducing the maximum
consecutive work hours for residents, which is currently 36, to improve the
residency training environment, and gradually transitioning to resident-centered
hospital operation.

Second, the government will strengthen local healthcare. It will focus on

fostering national university hospitals and local private/public hospitals so that
local communities can access a complete set of essential healthcare services.
The government will also launch a pilot project to innovate local healthcare
for stronger cooperation networks for essential services (provide support worth
up to KRW 50 billion to selected regions over 3 years). In order to secure

- 2 -
doctors to provide local communities with stable access to essential healthcare
services, the government will greatly increase the medical school quota for
local talents and introduce the contractual local essential doctor system. Other
measures include expanding healthcare service prices tailored to local needs
based on local healthcare maps and reviewing the formation of a new local
healthcare development fund to increase investments in local healthcare.

Third, the government will build safety nets for medical malpractices. The
plan involves a special rule that provides for exemption from criminal
punishments in case of medical malpractice, on the caveat that all medical
professionals subscribe to the relevant insurance or mutual aid plans. The rule
allows medical professionals to focus on treating critical or emergency patients
in a secure environment, while ensuring that patients receive rapid and
sufficient compensation for malpractice. The government will also strengthen
state compensation for no-fault malpractice such as the ones involving fetal
delivery.

Fourth, the government will improve the fairness of the compensation system.
By 2028, more than KRW 10 trillion will be invested to raise the prices of
essential healthcare services. For essential fields incompatible with the
fee-for-service system, the government will expand on the public policy fee
and alternative payment schemes. Moreover, in order to prevent the distortion
of healthcare delivery in the non-covered service market and address the
imbalance in compensation, the government plans to prohibit claiming National
Health Insurance payments for covered services provided along with excessive
non-covered services for non-critical conditions, such as manual therapy (no
mixed treatment). A comprehensive institutional reform, including an improved
qualification scheme, is in the pipeline for cosmetic medicine, a field that has
largely remained outside of government control so far.

The government will set up the Presidential Committee on Healthcare Reform

- 3 -
to add momentum to the policy package and ensure the rapid establishment of
an action roadmap for the initiative. It will also announce a comprehensive
plan for the National Health Insurance to support the implementation of the
policy package. ///

- 4 -