Health Policy Manag.  2019 Dec;29(4):379-381. 10.4332/KJHPA.2019.29.4.379.

Direction of Healthcare Reform for Sustainability

• Park EC

• KMID: 2470445
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4332/KJHPA.2019.29.4.379

Abstract

Korea's healthcare is in great danger of sustainability. In 2020, the baby boomer will begin to be older, and there is no promise that the total fertility rate of 1.0 or less will rebound, and Korea's economic growth rate is predicted to be less than 2%. Together with these phenomena, Plan for Benefit Expansion in Nation Health Insurance (Moon Jae-in Care) will seriously threaten the sustainability of health insurance finance. In addition, health care in Korea has many problems: excessive medical utilization, rapidly increasing elderly medical costs, concentrating patients into big hospitals, low healthcare personnel but many healthcare facilities and equipment, bad quality of primary and mental care, and fast-growing health expenditure. For sustainability, healthcare of Korea should be reformed. The direction of the reform is people-centered and integrated healthcare in the community which is composed of empowering and engaging people, strengthening governance and accountability, reorienting the model of care, coordinating services, and creating an enabling environment.

Keyword

Healthcare; Reform; Sustainability; People-centered; Integration

MeSH Terms

Aged
Birth Rate
Delivery of Health Care*
Economic Development
Health Care Reform*
Health Expenditures
Humans
Insurance, Health
Korea
Population Growth
Social Responsibility