National insurance to cover dental implants

The National Health Insurance Service will cover up to two dental implants for all types of teeth throughout subscribers’ lives. / Yonhap

By Kim Da-ye

Dental implants for patients aged 75 or older will be covered by the national health insurance beginning in July, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The cost paid by insured patients is expected to more than halve to some 600,000 won. That includes dentists’ charges for performing the surgery and the price of the prosthesis, including the implant, abutment and crown.

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) will cover up to two dental implants for all types of teeth throughout subscribers’ lives.

The cost of dental implant procedure will be cut in two steps.

Because dental implant procedure has been in the domain of private medical care, dentists could decide their rates for surgery. Once it is covered by the national health insurance, the rate charged by dental clinics will be fixed at 1,012,960 won. The rate will be higher for larger hospitals. The prices of prostheses will range from 130,000 won to 270,000 won depending on types of materials.

And then half of the surgery expenses and the prosthesis price will be paid by the health insurance.

According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), getting a dental implant currently costs between 1.39 million and 1.8 million won.

To qualify for the coverage, patients must be 75 or older and have some of teeth missing. Those who have lost all teeth won’t be covered by the national insurance.

The national insurance covers partial denture, and subscribers who have subsidized partial dentures will also be able to receive cheaper dental implant procedures.

“In 2014, some 40,000 patients are expected to benefit from the coverage, and up to 47.6 billion won of the national health insurance fund will be used for this,” said the health ministry.

Koreans 75 and up have an average of 1.8 dental implants, according to the KIHASA.

The ministry said that it plans to expand the coverage by making it available to those 70 and older from July 2015, and those 65 and older from 2016.

The coverage for both partial and complete dentures will also expand in the next several years, the ministry said.