Minor Injuries in Car Accidents Reflect Personal Fault in Insurance Processing

Announcement of Car Insurance System Improvement Plan

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] From now on, in the event of a car accident, the portion of fault attributed to the insured must be handled through their own insurance. It has been judged inappropriate for the opposing insurance company to pay the full treatment cost regardless of the degree of fault.

The Financial Services Commission announced on the 30th the 'Automobile Insurance System Improvement Plan' centered on this content.

Recently, as automobile insurance payouts have surged, the insurance premium burden on policyholders (approximately 23.6 million people) has also been continuously increasing. The main causes pointed out include excessive treatment for minor injuries and the lack of objective insurance payout standards (such as upper-class hospital room charges and Korean medicine treatment fees).

Accordingly, the government has decided to first establish a reasonable treatment cost payment system for minor injury patients. Currently, when a car accident occurs, the opposing party's insurance company pays the full treatment cost regardless of the degree of fault (except for 100:0 accidents), which will be improved.

Going forward, applying the principle of fault responsibility, the treatment costs (bodily injury level 2) for minor injury patients (levels 12 to 14) corresponding to the insured's fault portion will be handled by their own insurance company. However, pedestrians (including two-wheelers and bicycles), who may have difficulty securing treatment cost coverage, will be excluded.

A Financial Services Commission official explained, "The system improvement is expected to reduce excessive treatment costs by 540 billion KRW," adding, "It is expected to reduce national insurance premiums by 20,000 to 30,000 KRW."

For long-term treatment of minor injury patients, submitting a medical certificate will also be made mandatory. Currently, treatment and insurance claims can be made without submitting proof documents such as medical certificates at the time of the accident, with no time limit. This has led to frequent cases where patients receive hospital treatment for unnecessarily long periods and demand excessive settlements from insurance companies.

Therefore, if long-term treatment is necessary, insurance payouts will be improved to be based on medical institution certificates. The applicable subjects are minor injury patients excluding moderate to severe injury patients (bodily injury levels 1 to 11). Coverage without a medical certificate is possible up to 4 weeks, and beyond 4 weeks, insurance payouts will be made according to the treatment period stated in the medical certificate.

Additionally, insurance payout standards for upper-class hospital rooms and Korean medicine fields will be specified. Measures such as setting upper limits on upper-class hospital room charges will be analyzed and reviewed to promote revisions to treatment fee standards. Korean medicine treatment fee standards will also be improved. Through research commissioned to specialized institutions, the current status of major Korean medicine treatment items such as herbal medicine and acupuncture will be analyzed, and improvement plans for treatment fee standards will be prepared.

Furthermore, convenience in subscribing to special contracts through sharing driving distance information and the calculation and announcement of automobile insurance base indices will also be promoted.

A Financial Services Commission official stated, "After revising the standard terms and conditions and related regulations from the second half of the year, we plan to implement detailed tasks sequentially from next year."

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