This article presents data on health care spending for the Republic of Korea, covering expenditures for types of medical care providers and their sources of funding in 1995 (for hospitals from 1992 to 1995).
In 1995 the Nation´s medical care consumers spent 13.39 trillion won for medical care to medical care providers including hospitals, drug stores, dental services, and physician offices which is 78.9 percent of the Total National Health Expenditures. Expenditures for inpatient services were 4.58 trillion won and expenditures for outpatient were 7.51 trillion won.
Medical care expenditures in General Hospitals amounted to 5.1 trillion won in 1995, accounting for 38.6 percent of the total. Expenditures in Hospital accounted to 1.4 trillion won. Expenditures in Physician Offices reached 3.2 trillion won, accounting for 24.5 percent. Expenditures for dental services were 1.3 trillion won (9.9 percent of the total), for drug stores were 0.9 trillion won (7 percent of the total), for traditional oriental herb and medical services were 1.4 trillion won (9.1 percent to the total), and for Health Centers and Maternity Centers were 61.5 billion won (0.5 percent of the total) .
Third-party sources of funds, the amounts expended by national health insurance scheme, Medicaid, and private health insurance, accounted for 44 percent of all national health expenditures expended in health care providers. Out-of-pocket purchases accounted for 56 percent of the expenditures. This article shows that medical care consumers were under the burdensome out-of-pocket payments problem even though Korea has implemented the national health insurance program.
This article recommends that Korean Government recognize the importance of estimating the National Health Expenditures correctly and implement policy measures to improve the data quality on National Health Expenditures.
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