▲ A National Health Insurance Service branch office in Seoul
The government's national subsidies allocated to the National Health Insurance finances have fallen short of statutory standards, with the cumulative shortfall expected to exceed 13 trillion won over the eight-year period from 2020 to 2027.
According to an analysis, next year's budget proposal also reflects only 12.3%, falling short of the statutory support rate of 14% and resulting in a deficit of over 1.6 trillion won. Consequently, the National Assembly Budget Office (NABO) has urged the government to comply with the legal criteria and formulate a concrete implementation plan.
According to the "Analysis Report on the 2027 Budget Proposal by Committee" published by the National Assembly Budget Office, the 2027 budget for supporting National Health Insurance subscribers (general account) compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare stands at 11.7923 trillion won.
Although this represents a 9.4% increase compared to 2026, it remains at only 12.3% of the projected insurance premium revenue for that year (95.9208 trillion won).
Article 108-2 of the current National Health Insurance Act stipulates that the state shall support an amount equivalent to 14% of the projected revenue from health insurance premiums for the relevant year from general account national subsidies within the limits of the annual budget.
However, the actual government support rates have lingered in the 11% to 12% range: 11.5% in 2020, 11.5% in 2021, 11.9% in 2022, 12.0% in 2023, 12.1% in 2024, 12.1% in 2025, 11.9% in 2026, and 12.3% in the 2027 budget proposal.
As a result, the total shortfall caused by failing to meet the statutory support rate (14%) over the eight years from 2020 to 2027 amounts to 13.0731 trillion won.
The National Assembly Budget Office pointed out that citing phrases in the law such as "within the limits of the budget" and "equivalent amount," the government has discretionarily reduced and compiled the subsidy amounts depending on fiscal conditions.
(Photo courtesy of National Assembly Budget Office, Yonhap News)
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