Jungnang-gu Selected as an Outstanding Municipality for Supporting Health Insurance Premiums for Vulnerable Groups

Enacted Related Ordinance in 2007 to Support Health Insurance Premiums for Low-Income Residents... Various Social Safety Net Policies to Prevent Welfare Blind Spots

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Jungnang-gu (Mayor Ryu Kyung-gi) was selected as an excellent local government for supporting health insurance premiums for low-income vulnerable groups this year and received a plaque of appreciation from the National Health Insurance Corporation on the 6th.

The health insurance premium support project for low-income vulnerable groups is designed to prevent situations where vulnerable groups are unable to use hospitals due to unpaid health insurance premiums.

The district enacted related ordinances in 2007 and has been supporting health insurance premiums and long-term care insurance premiums for the elderly since 2008 for low-income vulnerable groups.

The target groups are low-income vulnerable households whose health insurance and long-term care insurance premiums are billed at 14,540 KRW or less, including elderly households aged 65 or older who are not basic livelihood security recipients or medical aid recipients, single-parent families, child-headed households, households with registered disabled persons, households of national merit recipients, and households with chronic or rare incurable disease patients.

The district receives recommendations every month from the Jungnang branch of the National Health Insurance Corporation for about 400 such low-income vulnerable households and supports their health insurance premiums. Last year, a total of 5,658 households received about 34 million KRW in health insurance premium support, and as of the end of September this year, 3,518 households received about 27 million KRW in health insurance premium support, enabling them to receive medical benefits.

Ryu Kyung-gi, Mayor of Jungnang-gu, said, “The health insurance premium support project for vulnerable groups will greatly help prevent unfortunate situations where people cannot visit hospitals on time due to unpaid health insurance premiums despite being ill,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to support medical services for low-income gap groups.”

To eliminate welfare blind spots, the district sends customized benefit guidance (Welfare Membership) text messages to residents who are likely to be eligible for benefits to ensure they are not excluded from social welfare services such as basic livelihood security, and actively promotes the abolition of the support obligation criteria for basic livelihood benefits implemented from October this year.

In addition, various efforts are being made to strengthen the social safety net, including operating the Integrated Support Center for Crisis Families, the Care SOS Center project, and establishing a Child Protection Team to respond to child abuse.

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