Last Year, 20.8% of Nursing Institutions' Medical Fees Were from Other Regions... Regional Medical Disparities Persist

Ratio of Medical Expenses Inflow from Other Regions by Province

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] About 20% of the medical expenses at domestic care institutions last year were used by patients from other regions. This indicates that the concentration of patients at metropolitan medical institutions due to regional medical disparities is still ongoing.

According to the "2021 Regional Medical Usage Statistical Yearbook" published by the National Health Insurance Service on the 27th, the proportion of medical expenses from patients who came from other cities or provinces accounted for 20.8% (21.8559 trillion KRW) of the total medical expenses (105.2248 trillion KRW) at care institutions last year.

Seoul had the highest proportion, with 9.6372 trillion KRW (36.9%) of the 26.1035 trillion KRW medical expenses coming from patients from other regions. This was followed by Gwangju (30.2%), Daejeon (27.2%), Sejong (26.0%), and Daegu (25.4%), with the top five regions all exceeding 20% in the inflow of medical expenses from other regions.

Among the total inpatient and outpatient days (1.06459 billion days) of the medically insured population last year, 60.9% (648.27 million days) used care institutions within their own region, with Ungjin-gun having the lowest rate at 22.4%. Jeju recorded the highest in-region usage rate at 90.6%.

Medical expenses for the insured population last year amounted to 105.2248 trillion KRW, a 10% increase compared to the previous year (95.694 trillion KRW). The average annual medical expense per patient was 2.14 million KRW, up 8.6% from 1.97 million KRW the previous year.

The region with the highest average annual medical expense per patient was Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, at approximately 3.64 million KRW, which is 1.5 million KRW higher than the national average (about 2.14 million KRW). Conversely, the lowest average annual medical expense per patient was in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, at 1.49 million KRW. Generally, Sinan-gun has a high proportion of elderly residents, while Yeongtong-gu has a high proportion of young residents. A National Health Insurance Service official explained, “When adjusting for age structure effects between regions through age-standardized analysis, Yeongdo-gu, Busan, showed the highest average annual medical expense per patient at 2.74 million KRW.”

Regarding the number of patients treated per 100,000 people last year for the four major cancers, stomach cancer was the highest at 318 patients, followed by colorectal cancer at 302, lung cancer at 222, and liver cancer at 156. For representative chronic diseases, the number of patients treated per 100,000 people nationwide for hypertension was 13,981, and for diabetes, it was 7,202.

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