Doctors oppose national insurance coverage of hair loss treatment

Doctors criticized President Lee Jae Myung's suggestion to cover hair loss treatment with the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), questioning whether baldness should take priority over more serious illnesses.

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a policy briefing by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety at the Sejong Convention Center on Dec. 16. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Doctors criticized President Lee Jae Myung's suggestion to cover hair loss treatment with the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), questioning whether baldness should take priority over more serious illnesses.

National funds should be directed at covering severe diseases instead of covering hair loss treatments to align with the system's core principles, according to a statement released by the Korean Medical Association (KMA) Wednesday in response to President Lee's request made during the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s policy briefing a day prior.

“Rather than pouring National Health Insurance finances into covering hair-loss medication, priority should be given to expanding coverage for severe diseases,” the association said.

The statement came after President Lee referred to hair loss as "an issue of survival" and instructed officials to review broader insurance coverage for hair-loss drugs.

The KMA also addressed the longstanding problem of emergency rooms turning away patients. While agreeing with Lee’s view that all emergency patients should be diagnosed and treated at emergency rooms, the association said the underlying causes need to be examined more closely.

“There is no doctor who disagrees with the president’s view that all emergency patients should receive diagnosis and treatment,” the KMA said. “But we urge the government to reexamine why so many emergency medical institutions are currently unable to accept patients in a timely manner.”

A head suffering from hair loss [JOONGANG ILBO]

To address the issue, the association called for broader legal immunity for hospitals that provide emergency care in good faith and for the government — not private providers — to take responsibility for step-by-step patient transfers between institutions.

“If emergency medical institutions are widely exempted from liability when they provide their best possible care, and if patient transfers are supported by a state-run system, the issues the president is concerned about could be resolved in a relatively short period of time,” the KMA said.

During the policy briefing, Lee likened the NHIS to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), which already operates a special judicial police unit.

“Unlike the FSS, the NHIS is a direct party to reimbursement contracts with medical institutions and has a vested interest in paying or cutting medical fees,” the KMA said. “Granting it compulsory investigative powers could undermine physicians’ legitimate right to practice medicine and lead to defensive medicine, ultimately harming public health.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY JUNG SI-NAE [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]