Persistent Differences in Views on Medical School Quotas…Medical Community Says "Sufficient" vs Consumers Say "Insufficient"

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There is a possibility that the future expansion scale of medical school quotas to address essential medical service gaps may exceed government expectations. This is because the government has decided to expand the discussion participants on medical school quotas not only to the medical community but also to healthcare consumers. Until now, the government had planned to increase the quota by around 351 students, which was reduced during the separation of prescribing and dispensing, reflecting this from the 2025 admissions, considering the possibility of negotiations with the medical community.

On the 30th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced plans to broadly gather opinions on the medical school quota issue not only through the Medical Issues Consultative Body (Consultative Body), which discusses with the Korean Medical Association (KMA), but also through the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee (HMPDC). This is in accordance with Article 8 of the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services, which requires the state and local governments to collect public opinions when establishing and implementing health and medical policies that significantly affect citizens' rights, obligations, and daily lives.

Because of this, the KMA is strongly opposing the move. At the 12th meeting of the Consultative Body on the 29th, statements such as “We request that the September 4, 2020, medical agreement and the 11 previous medical consultative meetings do not become mere empty promises” and “What happens if the decisions of the Consultative Body and the HMPDC conflict? What role will the Consultative Body, which has lost its reason for existence, play in the future?” (Lee Kwang-rae, President of the Incheon Medical Association) were made. The Consultative Body was established to discuss the increase of medical school quotas following the September 4, 2020, medical agreement reached after the medical community strike, but it does not have legal binding power. Lee Hyung-hoon, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated, “We will continue to run the Consultative Body in parallel to ensure that the medical community's opinions are sufficiently gathered regarding the medical school quota increase measures.”

There is a high possibility that voices calling for a drastic increase in medical school quotas will emerge within the HMPDC. A projection from the Korea Development Institute (KDI), a national policy research institute, suggested that “Because there will be a shortage of about 22,000 doctors by 2050, the medical school quota should be expanded by 5% annually starting in 2024 so that the quota reaches 4,303 by 2030.”

On the other hand, the KMA says, “Do not simply view the opposition to the expansion of medical school quotas as selfishness by the medical community.” The KMA believes that considering the low birth rate and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), expanding medical school quotas may lead to an oversupply of doctors, resulting in increased health insurance medical expenses. They argue that creating a medical environment to prevent essential medical personnel from moving to popular specialties such as plastic surgery and dermatology is more urgent. At the ‘Doctor Workforce Supply and Demand Projection Expert Forum’ hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 27th, 4 out of 8 experts also stated that “expanding medical school quotas does not necessarily solve essential medical service issues.”

Professor Lee Ju-yeol of the Department of Health Administration at Namseoul University said, “The supply and demand of doctors inevitably change moment by moment due to various variables such as population decline, rapid aging, advancement of digital medical technology, and development of breakthrough treatments,” adding, “A statutory organization that can calculate the appropriate number of doctors on a cycle of about five years is necessary.”

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