NHIS, Full-Scale Response Ahead of May Tobacco Lawsuit Hearing

Discussion of Countermeasures with the National Smoking Harm Countermeasures Task Force

The National Health Insurance Service announced on the 31st that it held an advisory meeting of the 'National Smoking Harm Countermeasures Task Force,' composed of experts in health, law, and medicine, to discuss winning strategies for the 12th hearing of the tobacco lawsuit appeal scheduled for May.

On the 27th, at the advisory meeting of the 'National Anti-Smoking Harm Countermeasure Group,' Jeong Gi-seok, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Corporation, is discussing response strategies for winning the tobacco lawsuit with healthcare experts.

The task force was launched by the Service in 2016 to jointly respond to tobacco lawsuits and to discuss the overall harms of smoking and promote a culture of smoking cessation. The advisory committee includes advisory groups from six medical organizations, advisory panels from ten medical specialty organizations, support groups from eleven consumer organizations, and 30 experts from various fields.

At the advisory meeting, representatives from seven professional organizations?the Korean Association on Smoking and Health, the Korean Society of Lung Cancer, the Korea Council on Smoking and Health, the Korean Academy of Family Medicine, the Korean Society for Preventive Medicine, the Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, and the Korean Society of Epidemiology?along with 17 advisory members attended to share the progress of the tobacco lawsuit appeal and to gather expert opinions on key litigation issues, collaboratively devising litigation strategies.

Jung Ki-seok, Director of the National Health Insurance Service, stated, "This is a very meaningful occasion where experts from various fields unite with one voice solely for the tobacco lawsuit." He added, "Through collaboration, we have further proven the causal relationship between smoking and cancer and the illegal activities of tobacco companies in the appeal trial. Based on this scientific and medical evidence, we will make every effort to refute the distorted claims of tobacco companies."

The attending committee members mentioned numerous cases in advanced countries such as the United States and Canada where governments have obtained compensation from tobacco companies through lawsuits, and collectively urged, "We hope that Korea will also protect the lives and health of its citizens through a just ruling."

Myung Seung-kwon, Chairman of the Korea Council on Smoking and Health, pointed out, "According to the classification criteria of the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is classified as Group 1 carcinogen, which means it is definitely carcinogenic to humans." He criticized, "Although the court recognized this in the 2011 second trial of the previous tobacco lawsuit conducted by the Smoking Cessation Movement Council, the first trial of the tobacco lawsuit filed by the National Health Insurance Service ruled against this causal relationship."

The National Health Insurance Service filed a damage compensation lawsuit amounting to approximately 53.3 billion KRW against tobacco companies KT&G, Korea Philip Morris, and BAT Korea in April 2014, and the appeal trial is currently underway.

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