A while ago, I visited a doctor for some discomfort. The nurse told me there was a long wait because I walked in without an appointment. I asked how long, and she said, “30 minutes,” to which I rejoiced quietly. The treatment and care I received that day was excellent. And I paid only a modest amount fee even though I was not covered by Korea’s national health insurance system.
In many other countries, you can go see a doctor mostly on an appointment basis only, and still the wait time is unbearably long. Securing an appointment in the first place is a circus job. Once you go, the quality of care varies a lot from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. Most of all, the medical and insurance fees are outrageously high, especially in the United States.
The Korean health care system is a pleasant mystery. Getting care is easy and quick. Clinics and hospitals are equipped with the latest medical technologies. The quality of service is superb overall and exceptional, especially in the areas of dentistry and plastic surgery. And the cost patients bear is low because of the tightly managed national health insurance system. I know some \Koreans complain about the country’s health services, but they haven’t experienced the slow, inefficient and greed-stricken health care systems in other parts of the world.
Now, I am worried about the brewing troubles in Korea’s health care system. The country is in commotion due to the doctors’ strikes, protests and resignations against the government’s measure to raise the enrollment quota at medical schools. The Korean government has been trying to raise the quota to address the growing shortage of doctors in rural areas and to prepare for the rapidly aging population. The doctors and their interest groups, however, are vehemently opposed to the measure, saying that an increase in the number of doctors would lead to greater competition and excess treatments in the medical market. They also say that an increased number of medical students will only choose to study popular specialties like cosmetic surgery and dermatology, making ineffective the government’s plan to improve medical services in essential fields like emergency medicine.
I am no expert in health care policy, and I speak mostly from the perspective of a consumer and patient who has experienced medical services in several other countries. I think Korea’s excellent and consumer-friendly health care system mostly comes from skilled and hard-working doctors and the country’s national health insurance that strictly controls medical prices. I think many doctors in Korea deserve raises, and this is the issue that I suspect lies at the heart of the current protest.
But it is also true that Korea is increasingly suffering from a shortage of doctors. The quick and easy care Koreans receive mostly applies to those who live in the Seoul metropolitan area. In smaller cities and rural areas, it is not easy to find qualified doctors. Furthermore, doctors in vital specialty areas like emergency medicine are too few compared to other medical specialties, and the short waiting time does not apply to emergency rooms. In fact, horror stories abound in which critical condition patients had to travel from one emergency room to another because of a shortage of doctors. And the Korean population is growing older, potentially requiring a lot more doctors and medical professionals in the near future. Increasing the number of doctors would help ease the current and rising problems in the system, particularly if they are directed to essential services across the nation.
The doctor’s protest is already causing a crack in the system, delaying surgeries for urgent patients. The government upped the ante issuing a legal ultimatum against the doctors. Doctors responded with an even stronger protest. In this struggle, who suffers the most are the citizens and patients. The fight cannot come at the expense of patients and their lives. I hope the government and the doctors come to a settlement soon through constructive dialogue.
Min Seong-jae (smin@pace.edu) is a professor of communication and media studies at Pace University in New York City. He is a 2023–24 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Korea.
Korea's health system
24
20
12.03.2024
A while ago, I visited a doctor for some discomfort. The nurse told me there was a long wait because I walked in without an appointment. I asked how long, and she said, “30 minutes,” to which I rejoiced quietly. The treatment and care I received that day was excellent. And I paid only a modest amount fee even though I was not covered by Korea’s national health insurance system.
In many other countries, you can go see a doctor mostly on an appointment basis only, and still the wait time is unbearably long. Securing an appointment in the first place is a circus job. Once you go, the quality of care varies a lot from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. Most of all, the medical and insurance fees are outrageously high, especially in the United States.
The Korean health care system is a pleasant mystery. Getting care is easy and quick. Clinics and hospitals are equipped with the latest medical technologies. The quality of service is superb overall and exceptional, especially in the areas of dentistry and plastic surgery. And the cost........
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