New 'Special Allowance' Established for Public Medical Institutions: "Medical Reform, Not Medical Commercialization"

Vice Minister Park Minsu of the Ministry of Health and Welfare Chairs Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting
Urges Participation in Ruling and Opposition Parliamentary Consultative Body and Medical Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee

The government has decided to provide special allowances exempt from total wage cost regulations to public medical institutions struggling with a shortage of essential medical personnel due to doctors' salaries being lower than those in private hospitals. In response to concerns that the government's healthcare reform is promoting medical commercialization, officials emphasized that "this is absolutely not true."

Park Min-su, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, is presiding over the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on doctors' collective action at the Situation Room of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 24th.
[Photo by Ministry of Health and Welfare]

On the 24th, Park Min-su, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, chaired a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters regarding doctors' collective actions and stated, "We plan to provide special allowances for maintaining essential medical services so that each public medical institution can improve the treatment of essential medical doctors more autonomously and effectively."

Vice Minister Park explained, "Public medical institutions play a pivotal role in maintaining emergency medical response measures and regional and essential medical services, yet doctors' salaries are significantly lower than those in the private sector, causing difficulties in retaining essential medical personnel. Through this, we expect to maintain the regional and essential medical safety net during emergency medical periods."

He welcomed the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences and the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Medical Schools' willingness to participate in the ruling and opposition parties' parliamentary consultation body and urged other medical organizations to join the consultation body as well.

Vice Minister Park said, "We welcome the decision of these two organizations to participate in the consultation body for medical normalization despite their difficult internal circumstances. We hope this will open a full-fledged dialogue with the medical community." He added, "The government will engage in dialogue with an open mind and sincere attitude. We repeatedly urge other medical organizations, including the Korean Medical Association and resident doctors who have not yet decided to participate, to join the dialogue for the future of patients and healthcare."

In addition to the ruling and opposition parliamentary consultation body, efforts have been made to encourage doctors' organizations to participate in the Medical Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee. As of last week, the recommendation period for expert members of the entire estimation committee ended. Demand-side organizations and research institutes have completed their recommendations for the doctor and nurse supply and demand estimation committees, but recommendations from seven doctors' organizations have not yet been received.

Vice Minister Park said, "The estimation committee has been composed so that the majority of members are experts recommended by the relevant professions, as requested by the medical community. We ask the doctors' organizations that have not yet recommended members to actively participate."

Regarding the Seoul National University Hospital labor union's announcement of an indefinite strike starting on the 31st of this month, he expressed concern, saying, "This is worrying news at a time when everyone should be working together to maintain the emergency medical system," and urged, "We ask labor and management to engage in dialogue and make concessions to resolve the issue amicably."

During the meeting, Vice Minister Park strongly denied claims from some quarters that the government's healthcare reform aims to privatize medical services.

He stated, "The claim that healthcare reform is for medical commercialization is absolutely untrue, and the basis for that claim is nothing more than an unconvincing, outdated ideological attack. The government has neither the intention nor the plan to pursue medical commercialization." He added, "The government will firmly maintain the National Health Insurance system, which provides universal healthcare coverage, and will ensure the financial stability of health insurance to reduce the medical expenses burden on the public."

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a total of 623.7 billion KRW from the health insurance fund was spent by September this year to support emergency medical care due to medical service gaps. The ministry expects the health insurance fund to record a surplus of about 2.8 trillion KRW by the end of this year, with reserves reaching 31 trillion KRW.

Vice Minister Park explained, "The health insurance fund is currently being managed stably and will continue to be so. Even if we invest '10 trillion KRW plus alpha' from the health insurance fund in healthcare reform over the next five years, the fund will maintain a certain level of reserves and operate stably."

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