This study was carried out to identify and analyze policy issues on medical fees of Automobile Insurance (AI) in Korea.
The findings of this study are summarized as follows.
1. The legal characteristics of Al are protection of injured person, guarantee of indemnity for damage done and preferred payment of ordinary medical charges.
2. Al is a private and voluntary insurance based on the mutual contract between the insured individual and the private insurance company, which manage the insurance policy.
3. Increasing number of lawsuits resulting from high rate of traffic accidents has imposed financial difficulty on Al companies.
4. Al companies insist that medical charges amount to 32.9% out of all the insurance money paid, which results not from the unfair demand of medical institutions but from the high traffic accident rate in Korea.
5. Al. companies insist that excessive demand for payment of medical treatment by medical institutions occurs because there is no legal guideline set in place. But such insistences are mistaken because the installation of such devices is impossible in voluntary and private insurance.
6. Al companies argue that the victims of traffic accidents should be covered by health insurance, considering the introduction of National Health Insurance Programme in Korea.´ But such an insistence is mistaken because health insurance system restricts the payment of, insurance money to the injury caused by the third person.
7. AI companies insist that in advanced countries, the payout for the medical fees in Al works in close conjunction with Social Health Programme, but it is not so. It is only partially working in the countries with National Health Service installed.
8. Al companies insist that medical fees in Al are higher than those of health insurance. But such an insistence is mistaken because´ standard medical fee table which is applied in Al shows that it remains at 70% of medical fee applied to health insurance.
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