Last Year, Elderly Health Insurance Medical Expenses Exceeded 40 Trillion Won... Overall Medical Expenses Increased by 10%

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] Due to the aging population phenomenon, last year the health insurance medical expenses for the elderly aged 65 and over exceeded 40 trillion won. Total medical expenses also increased by 10% in one year, and health insurance expenditures rose by a similar level.

According to the '2021 Health Insurance Statistical Yearbook' published by the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, last year the total health insurance medical expenses, combining NHIS benefits and out-of-pocket payments, amounted to 95.4376 trillion won, an increase of 10.1% compared to the previous year. Among these, medical expenses for the elderly aged 65 and over were 41.3829 trillion won, accounting for 43.4% of the total. Elderly medical expenses increased by 3.7694 trillion won in just one year.

The medical expense per elderly person (5.05 million won) was 2.7 times higher than the overall average (1.86 million won). The elderly population among health insurance subscribers increased from 6.806 million in 2017 to 8.32 million last year. Although patients with annual medical expenses exceeding 5 million won numbered 3.518 million, only 7.4% of the total, their total medical expenses (48.865 trillion won) accounted for 51.2% of the total.

Last year, the amount of insurance premiums imposed was 69.4869 trillion won, a 10.1% increase from the previous year. Workplace subscribers and regional subscribers accounted for 59.4666 trillion won and 1.0202 trillion won, respectively. The average monthly insurance premium paid by workplace subscribers was 133,591 won, and by regional subscribers was 97,221 won. The annual insurance premium per health insurance beneficiary was 1.352083 million won, and the annual benefit cost per person was 1.492698 million won. On average, beneficiaries received about 140,000 won more in benefits than the premiums they paid.

The number of chronic disease patients increased by 6.1% from the previous year to 20.07 million. Medical expenses also rose by 8.1% to 39.2109 trillion won. The composition ratio of medical care benefits (NHIS expenditures) by treatment item at medical and health institutions showed that treatment and surgery fees accounted for the largest share at 19.7%. Meanwhile, the number of births was 261,641, down 4.3% from the previous year, and the number of delivery institutions was 487, a 6.0% decrease compared to the previous year.

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