▲ Sejong Government Complex of the Ministry of Health and Welfare
The government is pushing to lower the health insurance copay rate for patients with rare and severe intractable diseases from 10% to 7%.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will put forward a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the National Health Insurance Act containing these measures for public notice starting today, November 4, through November 16.
Once the amendment is implemented, the ministry expects that the annual out-of-pocket medical expenses per person for approximately 1.36 million patients with rare and severe intractable diseases will decrease from about 750,000 won to about 530,000 won.
The ministry has been applying special calculation exceptions to ease the burden on patients with rare and severe intractable diseases, but their current health insurance copay rate (10%) has been set higher than that of other severe diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (5%).
This amendment is the first step in the phased reduction of the health insurance copay rate for patients with rare and severe intractable diseases, which was resolved at the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee in September.
The government plans to lower it to 7% in December of this year, and further down to 5% in the first half of 2028.
The ministry plans to widely collect opinions during the legislative notice period, and after undergoing review by the Ministry of Government Legislation and resolution by the State Council, implement the amendment starting December 1.
(Photo provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yonhap News)
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