Celebrities, Actors, Athletes... Public Disclosure of High-Amount Arrears List for Four Major Insurance Premiums

Former Baseball Player Jeong Su-geun and Singer Jeong Jae-yong Included
Footballer Kunimoto Not in Korea... Only One-Sided Contact

The list of high-amount and habitual defaulters of the four major social insurance premiums has been disclosed. Celebrities, former baseball players, and actors are included in the list.

The National Health Insurance Service recently published the list of 13,688 people who have habitually defaulted on large amounts of the four major insurance premiums, including health insurance and national pension, on its website. The disclosed items include name, business name (for corporations, the name and representative's name), industry/occupation, age, address, delinquency period, and amount owed.

As of December 31 last year, defaulters who have not paid for over a year with ▲health insurance premiums of 1,000 KRW or more ▲pension insurance premiums of 20 million KRW or more ▲employment and industrial accident insurance premiums of 50 million KRW or more are subject to disclosure. The total amount owed by these defaulters reaches 563.7 billion KRW.

The Service stated that through the first Insurance Premium Information Disclosure Committee held in March, a voluntary payment period of more than six months and an opportunity to explain were given to 29,465 prospective disclosees, and the final disclosure targets were confirmed at the second committee meeting on the 20th of this month.

Japanese footballer Kunimoto Takahiro, who played in Korea, defaulted on insurance premiums.
[Image source=Korea Professional Football League]

The number of disclosed individuals this year decreased by 5.3% to 13,688 compared to 14,457 last year, but the amount owed increased by 52.1% to 370.6 billion KRW from last year's 563.7 billion KRW. The Service explained, "This is because the disclosure criteria for employment and industrial accident insurance defaulters were strengthened from the previous 'over 2 years and 1 billion KRW' to 'over 1 year and 50 million KRW' starting this year."

High-amount and habitual defaulters whose personal information is disclosed are subject to pre-benefit restrictions, meaning they cannot receive health insurance benefits when using hospitals or clinics and must bear the full cost of medical expenses themselves.

Many of the singers and actors on the list have appeared repeatedly, not just once.

Singer Jo Deok-bae has defaulted on health insurance premiums exceeding 32 million KRW since February 2010. DJ DOC member Jung Jae-yong also has about 30 million KRW in unpaid health insurance premiums. Former professional baseball player Jung Soo-geun and actress Kim Hye-sun have defaulted on health insurance premiums ranging from 15 million to 30 million KRW. Veteran actress Kim Hee-ra also has not paid over 10 million KRW in health insurance premiums.

Japanese player Kunimoto Takahiro, who played for Jeonbuk Hyundai in the professional K League and left Korea in 2022 due to drunk driving, also defaulted on 8 months’ worth of health insurance premiums amounting to 31.3 million KRW.

A Service official said, "After the default, we continued to contact them via mail and proceeded with seizure and partial collection, but since 2022, the defaulter has not been in the country, so only unilateral contact has been possible."

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