NHIS Faces Controversy Over Allowing Only 'Discontinued' Public Certificates for Use

Private Certificates and Bank Certificates Not Usable
Financial Payment Service's 'Geumyung Certificate' Also Unavailable

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] Amid the abolition of the public certification system, controversy is arising as the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) is reluctant to introduce a new certification system.

Currently, to log in to the NHIS, only the existing public certification is accepted, while certifications issued by financial institutions and telecommunications companies are not usable. NHIS is criticized for disregarding public inconvenience by insisting on the public certification based on resident registration numbers for security reasons.

According to NHIS on the 14th, when accessing the NHIS internet homepage, a popup related to the abolition of the public certification system appears. The notice states that "private certifications (such as Kakao, Naver, etc.) are not allowed" and "bank-issued certifications (such as Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, etc.) are not allowed."

Checking the NHIS’s self-prepared document titled "Notice on the Abolition of Public Certification (Q&A)," the question "Can financial certifications issued by the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute be used?" is answered with "Not usable. (Currently under review for introduction)."

On the NHIS homepage, to perform tasks such as issuing qualification certificates, checking and applying for refunds, and viewing and paying insurance premiums, users must log in with a joint authentication certificate (formerly public certification).

Installation of security programs and registration procedures for the joint authentication certificate are also required. Although simpler authentication services have emerged, NHIS still requires going through the existing inconvenient authentication procedures.

Netizens are voicing dissatisfaction. On a Naver cafe with over one million users, a post titled "It’s funny that the public certification system is gone" was uploaded, capturing the NHIS notice.

There was also a post stating that users are still forced to log in with the joint authentication certificate, which is just a renamed public certification. Comments criticizing this include "It’s just abolition in name only" and "Expected outcome."

"Difficult to apply due to security concerns"
"Currently reviewing introduction including private certifications"

The government launched a pilot project in September to expand electronic signatures in the public sector and selected five private operators. Some public institutions have proactively allowed private certifications. Seoul City and the National Pension Service have already piloted KakaoPay authentication services.

An NHIS official explained, "Since NHIS handles a large amount of personal information, there were concerns about strong security, and the financial certification system was changed on the 10th, making immediate application difficult. We are currently reviewing the introduction, including private certifications."

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