10 hospitals with the top and bottom health insurance coverage ratesA civic group survey found that the gap in health insurance coverage rates between public hospitals and private private hospitals is wide.
On the 22nd, the Citizens’ Alliance for Economic Justice Practice (Kyungsilyeon) revealed the results of a survey of 74 university hospitals affiliated with medical schools with a general hospital level or higher, including 14 national universities and 60 private universities. It was about 5% higher than that.”
The investigation was based on accounting data for medical institutions reported to the Ministry of Health and Welfare by each university hospital for 4 years from 2016 to 2019, and data on the amount of health insurance payments paid to hospitals by the National Health Insurance Corporation.
The average health insurance coverage rate of all university hospitals is 64.7%, and a total of 80 trillion won in medical expenses was obtained through health insurance patients for 4 years, of which 28 trillion won were directly borne by patients.
Of these, the average coverage rate of national university hospitals was 68.3%. About 17 trillion won in income was generated over four years, of which 12.1 trillion won was borne by health insurance.
Private university hospitals covered 39.6 trillion won for health insurance out of 62 trillion won in medical expenses received over four years, showing an average health insurance coverage rate of 63.7%.
The difference between the highest and lowest health insurance coverage ratesGyeongsilyeon pointed out that the health insurance coverage rate varies from hospital to hospital and varies by up to 31.7 percentage points.
Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital has the highest health insurance coverage rate of 79.2%, but CHA University’s Gangnam Cha Hospital recorded the lowest coverage rate at 47.5%.
It means that patients who use Cha Medical University Gangnam CHA Hospital pay more than half of the total medical cost on average, while Hwasun Jeonnam University Hospital patients directly pay only about 20% of the total medical expenses, which is a difference of 2.5 times.
In the top 10 health insurance coverage rates, the average coverage rate was 70.1%, of which 8 were national university hospitals.
The bottom 10 health insurance coverage rates showed an average health insurance coverage rate of 55.7%, all of which were private university hospitals. Their average gap was 14.4%, and the patient burden rate was 1.5 times different.
As patients who use university hospitals are mainly patients with severe diseases that require high medical expenses, the gap in coverage rates of more than 10 percentage points will return a considerable burden to patients, Gyeongsil-yeon analyzed.
Gyeongsilyeon argued that the difference in coverage rates is causing medical inequality in areas where there is no national university hospital.
In particular, residents of Jeollanam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do and Ulsan metropolitan cities saw that there is no national university hospital, so the option to use public hospitals is limited and the burden of medical expenses is high.
On the other hand, an analysis showed that the implementation of measures to strengthen health insurance coverage called’Moon Jae-in Care’ was effective.
According to Kyeongsilyeon, the health insurance coverage rate rose from 60% in 2016 and 2017 to 69% in 2018 and 2019.
“In order to reduce the burden on the public’s medical expenses, it is necessary to increase the supply of public medical care and an active management policy for the health insurance coverage rate of existing large hospitals,” said Kyungshilryeon. “The government must thoroughly control and manage non-pay items.”
He added, “As the role and necessity of public medical care in the situation of Corona 19 has been confirmed, all the capabilities of the health care policy should be focused on expanding public hospitals.”
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