Self-Employed Pay More Medical Insurance Fees
About 20 percent of all self-employed will be required to make more financial contribution to the national health insurance scheme starting this month.
Source : Korea Times
About 20 percent of all self-employed will be required to make more financial contribution to the national health insurance scheme starting this month.
Health authorities said 1.65 million, or 20.4 percent, of the 8.07 million self-employed would have to pay higher insurance premiums.
Monthly insurance premiums for 570,000 self-employed workers will rise by 5,000 won or more, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC).
In particular, 29,000 self-employed will see their insurance premiums jump by more than 50,000 won per month.
Officials at the Ministry of Health and Welfare said the rise was inevitable as incomes of subscribers have increased.
Thus insurance premiums have been adjusted in accordance with 1998 incomes. Last year's premiums were based on 1996 incomes.
However, 5.53 million self-employed subscribers, or 68.5 percent, will be allowed to continue to pay the current amount of monthly premiums.
Some 880,000 subscribers, or 10.9 percent, will enjoy a cut in their contributions to the medical insurance system.
Thus, monthly premiums for the self-employed will rise an average of 1.9 percent.
The average premium for each subscriber is estimated at 31,147 won per month, up 598 won from the current sum.
The NHIC made notification of the adjustment to individual subscribers earlier this month.
Anyone who has a complaint can ask the NHIC to reassess their monthly premium.
It was reported that the government is also planning to raise premiums by about 9 percent on average immediately after the general election on April 13.
Officials said the administration would have no choice but to impose higher insurance premiums on the self-employed because the financial health of the insurance scheme has deteriorated.
The national insurance scheme for the self-employed is expected to suffer a 700 billion won loss this year.
Labor unions and civic groups called on the government to reconsider a plan to integrate three separately-run insurance systems _ one each for salaried workers, the self-employed, and civil servants and teachers.
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