The Object of this study is to evaluate the effects of the privatization of the National Health Insurance. There are many problems in Korean Health Insurance System. For example, its benefits are not sufficient and the quality of the medical services is low, while it has experienced a large deficit in recent years. It has been often argued that these problems would be solved by privatizing of National Health Insurance. After resuming of studies on privatizing of the National Health Insurance, 4 types of privatization of National Health Insurance are suggested in this study. And then the fiscal effect, the effect on the quality of medical services, distributive effect and effect of risk sharing are evaluated.
Privatizing of a National Health Insurance is mostly related to introducing of competition between the insurers and more chance to choice of the patients. But the more the competition is intensified, the more it would be negative on the financial balance of the National Health Insurance and on quality of the services. And it would rather cause another problems such as regressive redistribution and minimizing the effect of risk sharing. As to reform of the Korean National Health Insurance, privatization does not seem to be a proper solution. For stabilizing the finance of the National Health Insurance and enhancing the quality of medical services, the National Health Insurance should be more expanded.
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