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| A foreign patient is treated at Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital. / Korea Times file |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Foreign students who stay in Korea for over six months can expect to shoulder higher medical insurance costs starting July, when a new law kicks in to enforce their compulsory registration in the state healthcare insurance system.
Currently, foreign students are usually covered by a private medical insurance program mediated through their host university. This private insurance has more limited coverage than the state-run insurance ― which reimburses over 60 percent of all essential medical costs ― but is financially accessible to students, set at around 10,000 won ($8.50) a month.
With the state program run by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), students will have to pay an average of 56,530 won a month for medical coverage.
"To be frank, foreign students who come to Korea are not usually economically well-off," a university official said in an online petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website, calling for foreign students to be given an exemption from the new rule.
The petition was signed by over 34,000 people as of Sunday.
"Plus, not allowing them to extend their visa if they fail to pay their insurance bill ― despite the ridiculously steep rise in fees ― seems very harsh," the official said. "The ministry should review the decision, taking into account that the policy may even increase the number of illegal aliens."
The revised rule is one of the changes to the National Health Insurance Act. It applies not just to international students but any foreigners who reside in the country continuously for at least six months.
Prior to this change, foreign residents could choose to be exempt from the program if they did not see a need or did not want to pay its monthly fees. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the plans in March as a countermeasure to cases of opportunism where foreigners signed up for the insurance program just before getting high-cost medical procedures.
As of last year, some 142,000 foreign students were enrolled in higher education institutions in Korea. Of these, around 100,000 will be affected by the new rule, including long-term students who are seeking a degree at a Korean school or those on part of lengthier Korean language or job training programs.
So far, the ministry has shown no signs of accepting universities' demands to create an exemption for students, saying the state-run health insurance and private insurance schemes used currently by foreign students currently are not interchangeable.
"The state program provides continuous coverage, tracking a certain illness over time, while the coverage provided by the 10,000 won private insurance is limited in terms of maximum reimbursement sum or service time frame," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Technical issues with payment may also cause problems, the petitioner said.
Unlike private insurance, the state insurance requires direct payments from the individual, rather than through the school. Students from certain countries ― such as Ethiopia and Iran ― who have trouble opening bank accounts in Korea, and will not have the automatic banking transfer option, requiring them to visit a bank once a month, the petitioner pointed out. The person also said there should be a grace period of three to four weeks after the student's arrival in Korea to allow time to apply for and receive an alien registration card.
Mandatory registration in the state insurance may be waived for citizens of countries having relevant bilateral agreements with the Korean government, people who work in foreign institutions or companies in Korea with a separate employee medical coverage scheme bypassing the NHIS, or those enrolled in a private or public medical insurance scheme in their home country if the coverage extends to Korea and is comparable to the Korean one in terms of reimbursement amount and scope.
