"Average Treatment Cost Per Person 6 Million Won... Gradual Application of Foreigners' Claims (Update)"

On June 8th, foreigners were waiting for COVID-19 testing at the Songpa-gu Public Health Center screening clinic. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Seul-gi] The government has decided to push for amendments to relevant laws to allow charging treatment fees to foreign nationals confirmed with COVID-19 who have entered the country from overseas. The implementation on the ground will be carried out gradually, considering the domestic quarantine situation.

On the 27th, Yoon Tae-ho, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters' quarantine team, said at a regular briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong, "We plan to apply support adjustment measures for foreign confirmed cases while monitoring various domestic quarantine situations and the burden on the medical system."

Yoon explained, "At the end of March to early April, when overseas imported cases surged, most of the confirmed cases among overseas entrants were our citizens, so we judged that there was little need to charge treatment fees to the minority of foreign entrants. However, currently, the number of foreign entrants exceeds that of citizens."

Previously, to prevent the domestic spread of COVID-19, the government had supported testing and treatment fees for foreign nationals confirmed with the virus who entered from overseas, based on the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

However, as cases of foreign nationals confirmed after entering the country from overseas have recently surged, the government judged that this places a burden on domestic quarantine and medical systems and decided to establish a legal basis to charge hospitalization treatment fees to foreigners. It is known that the average treatment cost per foreign confirmed case exceeds 6 million KRW.

Yoon said, "The domestic situation is being managed relatively stably, but we judged that overseas imported cases with a high proportion of foreigners could burden our quarantine and medical systems," adding, "This matter has been internally reviewed by quarantine authorities following the increase in overseas entrants last month."

The government announced the day before that it would charge treatment fees to foreign confirmed cases based on the principle of 'reciprocity.' This implies that foreigners from countries that do not support treatment fees for our citizens will be prioritized for treatment fee charges.

Yoon stated, "Considering 'reciprocity' is a possibility, but it does not mean it is applied legally or obligatorily," dismissing concerns about potential harm to our citizens living abroad due to this government measure.

He added, "For countries that provide medical support to our citizens, we will naturally provide medical support as well, and for countries that do not support treatment fees, we believe we can propose support measures for our citizens based on the government's support measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.