Ruling Party and Government Expand Medical Expense Support for Multiple Children... 'Flat 1.4 Million KRW → 1 Million KRW per Fetus' Increase

Shortening Daily Working Hours, Moved Up from '9 Months Pregnant' to '8 Months Pregnant'

The People Power Party and the government are pushing to increase medical expense support for multiple pregnancies (multiple children) and to expand spousal paternity leave for families with multiple children. To this end, the current payment of a flat 1.4 million KRW for pregnancies with twins or more will be expanded to 1 million KRW per fetus, and the criteria for reducing working hours for pregnant women have been moved forward from 9 months to 8 months of pregnancy.

On the 13th, Park Dae-chul, the Policy Committee Chair of the People Power Party, said after the 'Infertility and Multiple Children Customized Support Measures Party-Government Council' held at the National Assembly with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, "Considering that multiple pregnancies incur higher medical expenses, we decided to expand the voucher support amount to 1 million KRW per fetus."

Chairman Park stated, "Currently, pregnant women can reduce their working hours by 2 hours per day without a wage reduction starting from 9 months of pregnancy, but since mothers with multiple children often give birth prematurely before that, we decided to move forward the reduction of working hours to start from 8 months of pregnancy."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Additionally, the party and government agreed to consider including in the amendment to the Labor Standards Act a provision allowing pregnant women with triplets or more, who have a high risk of premature birth, to reduce working hours starting from 7 months of pregnancy. The People Power Party plans to pursue the amendment of the Labor Standards Act to implement this.

Furthermore, the party and government proposed expanding the paternity leave period for spouses of multiple children births and easing the criteria for infertility treatment cost support. Chairman Park said, "We decided to promote the amendment of the Act on Gender Equality in Employment to expand the paternity leave period for spouses of multiple children births. Currently, some regions apply income criteria such as below 180% of the median income when supporting infertility treatment costs, but we requested local governments to abolish such criteria so that the same support can be received regardless of income anywhere nationwide."

Chairman Park also stated, "To prepare for a healthy pregnancy in advance, we will pilot support projects for fertility tests such as ovarian and semen tests in some local governments next year and plan to expand them nationwide by 2025." The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to conduct this support project next year targeting 20 cities, counties, and districts and 52,000 people, with nationwide expansion in 2025. The project targets include de facto couples who are not legally married.

The government plans to create a comprehensive plan reflecting the contents of this consultation and announce it soon.

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