Health insurance is one of the important things we should have. In Korea, they have social insurance which provides Korean National Health Insurance for their citizens. International students and all foreigners who moved to Korea also can get insurance as they have been claimed for it.
However, foreigners might not be familiar enough with this insurance scheme. To know the guide to getting your Korean National Health Insurance as a foreigner, you can learn how to claim it by reading this article!
Overview of Korean National Health Insurance
The first thing you should know about before acknowledging Korean National Health Insurance, here is your short explanation about health insurance as it is a common need for everyone. Basically, health insurance takes the responsibility to secure your health needs such as medicine, hospital treatment, and surgery.
There are four parts of social insurance provided by The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea; National Pension Scheme, National Health Insurance Scheme, Employment Insurance, and Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance.
How Does Korean National Health Insurance Works?
Residents who have been moved long after six months can start to apply for the health insurance subscription. Since the Korean National Health Insurance is part of NHI (National Health Insurance), you can access NHI’s site to secure your insurance with some terms and conditions. Below are two classifications of the policy.
1. Employee Insurance
The insurance can be used for foreigners and overseas citizens who have been registered with Immigration Office, including public officials, teachers, and private school staff members. Your work location is also being considered as a covered area for the National Health Insurance.
In addition, if you are self-employed and work as a foreigner, you have to hand in the employee contract qualification inclusive of the workplace and both employer and employee.
2. Self-employee Insurance
This one is used for anyone who decides to stay in Korea for more than six months. Self-employed persons should subscribe to Korean National Health Insurance as qualified as in rule Annex 9 and Immigration Control Act article 31.
Moreover, as you apply for National Health Insurance in Korea, your stay of residence also should be reported in the Act of Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas article 6. The address of your stay will be registered as well in the Citizen Registration Act, article number 6.
The Exclusion for Employee and Self-employee Insurance
It seems easy for you to apply for National Health Insurance when you are already registered in civil registration in Korea. However, you might find some exclusions according to the terms and conditions that occur in Korean National Health Insurance subscriptions.
Overseas employees should claim their Korean National Health Insurance established in the Act article 76 and Law Regulation article 61. NHI (National Health Insurance) also put the target of health insurance subject to foreigners who are already insured as an employee.
Exclusion of National Health Insurance will automatically occur in 14 days since your submission deadline of all the requirements documents. You have to include your application for Employee Health Insurance, and other included documents for the employee insured to submit to NHIS (National Health International Service).
Benefits of Applying National Health Insurance for Foreigners
According to NHIS (National Health Insurance Service), there is no difference in Korean National Health Insurance for both foreigners and regular citizens. The benefit of National Health Insurance surely can cover almost all healthcare issues.
You can get any prevention of your healthcare, diagnosis, hospital treatment, and rehabilitation for your diseases. For women, it also takes responsibility for their childbirth. Korean National Health Policy also covers the death of registered citizens to the NHI.
Cost for Every Level of Korean National Health Policy
Korean National Health Insurance contributions have been increasing since 2016. It had a number of KRW 47.593T in 2016; more than 7% up from the previous year. It is still going up each year by more than 6% in total due to the high demand for National Health Insurance applications.
There are various costs of Korean National Health Insurance depending on what your occupation is. For students, they have to pay USD 50 – 60 per 2023. Moreover, for regular citizens, it costs KRW 120.000 (USD 100) on average per month. You can check the detail below:
1. Cost for Employed Insurance
NHI will automatically reduce the 50% for each employee and employer with a counting system Monthly Wage X Contribution Rate. The deduction is directly deducted from NHI and it used to cover up to 80% for inpatient health treatment and up to 70% for outpatient.
2. Cost for Self-employed Insurance
In fact, the counting system for self-employed insurance is just the same as the employed insurance. However, there is an exclusion from the reduction policy for households that consist of minors.
In the case of anyone living in a farming or fishing area, a 22% reduction will apply to NHI. For the farmers and fishermen, 28% will result in the reduction of NHI. There is no such huge difference in reduction presentation for people who live in a certain area.
Furthermore, the counting system is still the same as regular citizens yet need to consider the visa type for foreigners who decided to live permanently in the country.
In fact, things that need to be considered for foreign NHI payments are the cost totally covers all of the healthcare without any difference. Both benefits and fee payments are equal for either regular Korean citizens or foreigners.
Is Korean National Health Insurance Important for Foreigners?
With Korean National Health Insurance, you could secure your health needs even when you are overseas and decide to stay. You can start your plan and subscribe to the NHI if you have been living there for more than six months. All requirements that need to be submitted can be dissimilar to each country.
If you are not a native and have language struggles, you might need some help from your Korean colleagues to learn step by step Korean language. Even when you meet with the doctors or staff, a lot of them are able to speak in English.