This Year's Ministry of Health and Welfare Budget Surpasses 100 Trillion Won... Disease Control Agency Secures Additional 4.9 Trillion Won

Additional 3.4 Trillion KRW for Low-Income Living Stability Funds and Medical Institution Loss Compensation
KCDC Total Budget 13 Trillion KRW ... Purchase of Therapeutics to Prepare for 'COVID-19 Resurgence'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of Health and Welfare has secured an additional budget of 3.37 trillion KRW to stabilize the livelihoods of low-income groups amid high oil prices and inflation, and to compensate for losses incurred by medical institutions due to COVID-19. This amount exceeds the original government proposal by more than 500 billion KRW, bringing the ministry's total budget for this year to over 100 trillion KRW.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 30th, following the passage of the second supplementary budget by the National Assembly the previous day, the ministry's total expenditure for this year increased from 98.04 trillion KRW to 101.41 trillion KRW. Due to significant budget allocations for basic living security during the Moon Jae-in administration and the inclusion of COVID-19 related quarantine costs, the ministry is the first to execute a budget exceeding 100 trillion KRW.

In this supplementary budget, the Ministry of Health and Welfare secured an additional 3.3697 trillion KRW, which is 504.7 billion KRW more than the government’s original proposal of 2.865 trillion KRW. This includes COVID-19 related expenses such as compensation for losses incurred by medical institutions due to treating COVID-19 patients and various government quarantine measures (2.1532 trillion KRW), and support for dispatched medical personnel wages (70.1 billion KRW).

The budget also includes 990.2 billion KRW for a temporary emergency living support fund for low-income groups to help stabilize their livelihoods amid high inflation and oil prices, and an additional 87.3 billion KRW due to increased temporary livelihood support payments and relaxed asset criteria.

An additional 175.5 billion KRW was secured in the supplementary budget to cover the shortfall caused by the increase in the standard pension amount. The pension budget was originally prepared based on the 2020 inflation rate (0.5%), but actual payments are made according to the 2021 inflation rate (2.5%), resulting in a deficit.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) also secured a budget of 4.9083 trillion KRW in this supplementary budget, which is 573.3 billion KRW more than the government’s original proposal of 4.335 trillion KRW. The budget reflects increased quarantine expenses due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from January to April and support for the transition to a general medical system under the post-Omicron policy.

Specifically, the budget covers diagnostic test support (1.9691 trillion KRW), living support and paid leave support (1.1359 trillion KRW), isolation and inpatient treatment support (785.4 billion KRW), funeral support (183 billion KRW), additional purchase of COVID-19 therapeutics (786.8 billion KRW), purchase of 20,000 doses of preventive antibody therapeutics (39.6 billion KRW), antibody positivity rate surveys (3.8 billion KRW), and research on COVID-19 aftereffects (5.5 billion KRW).

The government plans to purchase an additional 1 million doses of oral COVID-19 therapeutics and 50,000 doses of injectable therapeutics to prepare for the transition to a general treatment system and a possible resurgence in the second half of the year. Additionally, new antibody therapeutics will be introduced to protect severely immunocompromised individuals who have a low response to vaccination.

The supplementary budget includes a reduction of 800 million KRW from regular expenses such as basic operating costs and personnel expenses. As a result of this supplementary budget, the total expenditure of the KDCA for 2022 will increase from 8.1495 trillion KRW to 13.0578 trillion KRW.

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