Rather than 'freeloading,' foreigners actually subsidize NHIS: data

A patient and medical workers are seen at a hospital in Seoul, July 10. (Yonhap)

Data provided by the National Health Insurance Service showed again Monday that foreign national subscribers pay more in contributions than they get back in benefits, debunking the belief that they are "freeloading" off the state-run health insurance program and demonstrating they actually subsidize the system.

In 2023, foreign national subscribers overall paid 2.04 trillion won ($1.47 billion) in insurance fees to the NHIS, substantially more than the 1.27 trillion won they received in benefits, according to NHIS data released by Rep. Nam In-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

In other words, foreign national subscribers created 730.8 billion won in revenue for the health insurance service through their contributions last year.

Not only in 2023, but the contributions of the NHIS' foreign national subscribers have resulted in significant revenue generation for the service in each of the last five years: 365.8 billion won in 2019, 572.9 billion won in 2020, 512.5 billion won in 2021, 544.8 billion won in 2022 and 730.8 billion won in 2023.

Between South Korea's rapidly-aging population and falling birth rate, the state insurance system has been suffering from financial problems. The NHIS' annual budget was expected to start recording a deficit by the end of this year, with its total deficit estimated to surpass 80 trillion won by 2042.

In recent years, suspicions have periodically surfaced about some foreign national residents' dependents abroad allegedly taking advantage of the NHIS to get medical treatment during short-term visits.

A recent report did show that Chinese nationals as a group have received more in benefits than they contributed annually between 2019 and 2023 -- by 98.7 billion won in 2019, 23.9 billion won in 2020, 10.9 billion won in 2021, 22.9 billion won in 2022 and 64 billion won in 2023 -- though they were the only nationality among the top 10 contributing nationalities to the service that did so.

In April, the Korean government mandated that all foreign national resident subscribers and their dependents must live in the country for six months before becoming eligible for NHIS coverage.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)