Health Insurance Union: Providing Medical Data to Insurers is an Act of Destroying Health Insurance... "Must Be Immediately Withdrawn"
[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) Labor Union demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service's (HIRA) recent decision to allow private insurance companies to use public health care data, calling it an act of destroying the national health insurance system.
The NHIS union issued a statement on the same day, criticizing that "(HIRA's decision) is essentially handing over the national medical data accumulated for the purpose of the national health insurance business to be used for product development aimed at maximizing profits for private insurance companies," and called it "the moment that opened the door to a long-cherished project of the Financial Services Commission and insurance companies."
On the 7th of last month, HIRA approved the use of public medical data requested by three life insurance companies?Samsung Life, KB Life, and Hanwha Life?and three non-life insurance companies?Meritz Fire & Marine, Samsung Fire & Marine, and KB Insurance. From now on, these insurers will be able to utilize pseudonymized public medical data when developing insurance products.
The NHIS union also criticized the Financial Services Commission and private insurers for requesting related data from the NHIS following HIRA's approval.
The union stated, "The Financial Services Commission, which coordinated HIRA, and private insurers are now targeting NHIS as their next objective," and demanded, "They are asking the NHIS to hand over medical data for new product development and risk rate development. The financial authorities must stop pressuring the NHIS."
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Regarding the NHIS, the union said, "It should not comply with the greedy data demands of private insurers," and criticized, "If the NHIS provides data to them, it means that the sole public insurer responsible for realizing the universal health rights of the people is forcing the public to bear expensive private insurance premiums while expanding private insurance and abandoning its own responsibilities."
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