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KMID : 1124020110270010133
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Korean Social Security Studies
2011 Volume.27 No. 1 p.133 ~ p.156
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Policy Measures for Consolidating Sickness Benefits
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Shin Kee-Chul
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Abstract
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Long term care due to sickness accompanied by unemployment and medical expense results in the financial distress of a household. The incident is typically resulted from occupational accidents, car accidents, or non- occupational occurrences, etc. In case of sickness due to occupational accidents or car accidents, the nature of indemnification or a liability, the Workers’ Compensation insurance or the Automobile Liability insurance provides a sufficient coverage for sickness benefits or disability pension. Compared with other OECD countries, Korea has better accessibility to medical services and relatively better health care environment through the national health insurance system. However, sickness benefits are not available in Korea unlike most other OECD countries. Considering the financial burden of the national health insurance system given the aging population, it would be practically difficult for Korea to introduce the similar benefits as in other OECD countries. Since the Labor Standards Act guarantees paid sick leave for more than 15 days a year depending on the length of employment, the limited disability income benefit is proposed only for the long term care due to serious sickness which is eligible for the disability pension in the national pension system. Possible measures to initiate the disability income benefit are as follows: development of sickness benefits only for serious injury or illness by reforming benefits structure in the national health insurance system to minimize the financial burden, introduction of statutory paid sick leave by revising the Labor Standards Act, or introduction of disability income insurance by revising the corresponding tax law.
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KEYWORD
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labor standards act, national health insurance, sickness benefits, paid sick leave, disability income insurance
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