Health Insurance

Health Insurance
[Contributed by shoeless]

You are entitled to coverage from the date you commence legal employment in Korea. It is voluntary coverage, but be assured it is good business to have it. It is compulsory coverage as of January 1, 2006 (see below). Your employer is legally obliged to accept your application for coverage and get it processed. Your employer is also legally obliged to pay 50% of the premium (4.77% shared 50-50). The premium is based on salary, so someone earning 2M won/month can expect to have 47,700 won deducted as their share of the premium. You know you are insured when you have your medical insurance booklet in your hand. Here is a link to the National Health Insurance Corporation website (English version) that you might use to answer more questions: http://www.nhic.or.kr/english/index.html. If you have difficulty acquiring Health Insurance – contact us. we can coach you through the steps to making it happen.

[This from Karla's research] Your insurance increases the more your income is. Although as a foreigner 30% of your income is not taxable, it still is included in your figure for paying for insurance. Also, only one (1) income range is chosen for BOTH insurance & pension, so you either have to pay extra into pension (which is matched by your employer) or underpay your insurance and then backpay it around March or April when taxes are all filed. If you are Canadian or American (and I heard starting in July – Australian) it is probably better to overpay your pension because when you leave you get it back in full. However, for others there are different agreements, some having to wait until 50 or 60 to receive the money, maybe even some others, never, so check out yours.

[from the Author] The following are screenshots from information on the National Health Insurance Corporation. As you can see from the images below, health care is no longer optional, and there is a table for figuring out your contribution.

[Contributed by Stephshimko]

One thing to keep in mind and not be surprised about is that you will NOT have health coverage as soon as you get off the plane. You cannot get your health insurance until you have your Alien Registration Card. If you come to Korea with your visa already, then you simply have to go to immigration and wait the 1-2 weeks for them to process your card. If you come here without a visa and have to do a visa run to Japan, it’s that much longer until you can get your health insurance.

HOWEVER, your policy is retroactive to the starting date of your contract once you open your policy. That means that if anything does happen to you after you get here and before you open your policy, you will have to pay for it out of pocket and then get reimbursed after your policy is in place.

It is important to consider which policy you want to open. There are two basic types of policies from which to choose, a private insurance plan, and a public insurance plan. Most of the time, the private plan should be chosen. It’s a little cheaper, and it’s more comprehensive. The choice should be made on an individual basis.

If you have a serious pre-existing condition such as diabetes, you lose such choices. The public national health insurance will still take you, though. It’s more expensive than the private policies, but honestly, it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what insurance costs in the west. So remember, if you have a chronic condition, you CAN get health insurance in South Korea. You just have to use the public insurance system.