Among foreign health insurance subscribers, Chinese reap highest benefits

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By Lee Hyo-jin

Among foreign residents who subscribe to Korea's national health insurance program, Chinese nationals were the only group whose total reimbursed medical expenses surpassed their total insurance premiums, according to National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) data.

According to data obtained by Rep. Seo Jeong-suk of main opposition People Power Party (PPP) from the NHIS, among the foreign nationals of the top 20 countries subscribed to the state-run healthcare system between 2017 and 2020, only the Chinese residents' reimbursement-to-premium ratio exceeded 100 percent, the group in total received more benefits than the amount paid.

In 2020, Chinese nationals paid an average of about 970,000 won ($808) in insurance premiums per person and received slightly over 1 million won in reimbursement.

Between 2017 and 2020, Chinese residents in total paid about 1.86 trillion won in insurance premiums, and received around 2.2 trillion won, amounting to a deficit of some 380 billion won for the NHIS.

During the same period, the reimbursement-to-premium ratio among Chinese subscribers stood at 121 percent, the highest among other foreign nationals.

The figure was much higher than that of Vietnamese nationals which marked 68 percent. Vietnamese nationals account for the second largest group of foreign subscribers to the NHIS.

The issue on health insurance coverage for foreign nationals has been gaining significant attention in the country's upcoming presidential election.

Yoon Suk-yeol, the PPP's presidential candidate, said Jan. 30 that if elected, he would apply tougher standards to screen foreigners benefiting from the national health coverage, saying that foreigners are “putting their spoons on tables prepared for Koreans.”

He said the measures would especially target Chinese nationals, as “eight out of 10 people who were covered the most by the state insurance program in 2021 were Chinese.”

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential hopeful of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea slammed his remarks, calling on Yoon to stop stoking xenophobia.

“The country has gained profit of more than 500 billion won from insurance payments from foreign residents,” he said, stressing that Korean citizens are the ones actually benefiting from the health insurance service.