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Running Head: A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care
System.

Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
Executive summary
We can all attest that health care system is a complicated issue and only a small number
of people who can agree on the type of system. The unites states have a combination of
privatized and public system unlike the Republic of Korea that has a private ownership system
after multiple disruptions from private to a universal system and vice versa.
The Korean health care system is unique and widely accepted and coexists between the
Korean traditional and western medicine. With the comparison of the United States and Korean
health care system, we can determine the best features that each system has. This gives us a
chance of adapting or borrowing some of the ideas in our system to make it more effective. This
can involve integrating some of the Korean system features into the United States system to
make it more effective in offering health care to its citizens. This will, therefore, increase the
universal accessibility as well as comprehensiveness to offer better health care.

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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.

Contents
Overview and history of Korean in Healthcare
system…………………………………………Error! Bookmark not defined.
Overview and history of Korean in Healthcare
system…………………………………………Error! Bookmark not defined.
Government involvement in the Healthcare
systems………………………………….………..Error! Bookmark not defined.
Health Expenditure…………………………………..…………………………………………..7
Health Insurance……………………..…………………………………………………….….....8
Scope of Coverage………………………..….…………………………………………..……....9
Premium Charges………………………………………………….………………….……..…..9
Equity and Efficiency………………………………………………………...…………….......10
Consumer Satisfaction…………….…………….……………………………….…………..…11
Recent Developments……………………………………………………………………….…..12
References…………………………………………….………………………………………...14

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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.

Overview and history of Korean in Healthcare system
In the United States, it was very hard for the Medical care to come by because it was
under the colonial government and few physicians from the Britain have come to North America.
By the 18th century, there was the introduction of the first major hospitals as well as the first
medical schools in New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The issue of the Royal Hospital in
New Orleans is very expensive resulted to the foundation of the second hospital. The charity
hospital was built to cater for the people on a charitable basis which is emulated today by many
hospitals all over the United States that are under the management of religious organizations. In
the course of the civil war, the federal government and single states started building hospitals in
every state with the intent of attending to the sick and the wounded soldiers. At the beginning of
the 20th century, the government also introduced health projects like provision of clean water,
sanitation services as well as the control of tuberculosis. After all, that implementation of the
projects, the United States health care system has been a giant system controlled by various
groups. In 1965, the system of Medicare and Medicaid were introduced to insure elderly citizens
and the people whose income fall under the poverty line as per the president Lyndon Johnson.
This resulted in a large federal healthcare system that covers a wide number of Americans. It is
now difficult to make these programs extensive to cover more people as it is always a
contentious issue that most politicians are not willing to broach (Goldsteen, 2017)

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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.

Overview and history of Korean in Healthcare system
After the WWII, there was a Korean war that happened to separate Korea into North and
south divisions. The Northern division became the North Korea, and the southern division
became the South Korea which is also referred to as the Republic of Korea. After the end of the
war, the Republic of Korea concentrated on building its economy. During this process, the
healthcare development projects were fund by international sources. At that time the government
was allocation (1) Percent of the national government to the health sector. Historically, Korea
used traditional methods in the treating, sanitizing and prevention of diseases. However, Korea
healthcare has undergone modernization: from the use of traditional medicine to science-based
medicine from the western physicians. About son, the western medicine was introduced in South
Korea by the American doctors. The Japanese colonial authority denied the traditional Korean
medicine was paving the way for the western medicine which seemed to be more effective. That
marked the medical evolution in Korea having been subjective by both Japan and North
American groups. The Korean health care system underwent much more development by
establishing an insurance system in 1963. Although the insurance system was slowly developing,
it was given a better way of developing the legislation in 1963. After the legislation, the
insurance was able to cover more than 300 employees. This made the government create the
medical insurance societies that were to be owned by a subsidiary of corporations. A voluntary
health insurance society called the Pusan Blue cross plan was formed in 1969 to cover the
individuals who were not able to afford health care. In 1977 there was an expansion of the
coverage that was to cover the self-employed individuals in rural areas. After the implementation
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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
and modification of the Korean health care system, it has undergone several developments which
can be compared with other countries (Son, 1998)
Government involvement in the Healthcare systems
The United States government does play a very significant role in the delivery of
healthcare services. Three levels of the government are involved in the provision of health care:
federal, state and local. Since 1965, the federal government gives a range of regulatory and
funding mechanisms like Medicaid and Medicare which are funded by it to provide health care
services to the poor and the elderly. Over the years, the federal government introduced programs
for the military personnel, veterans as well as their dependents. However, it does not ensure
accessibility of emergency services regardless of the ability to pay due to the EMTALA. The
federal government is responsible for controlling the national budget on healthcare, setting
reimbursement rates and formulating standards for providers of the Medicaid and Medicare
services. The state-level government regulates and funds mechanisms as well as provides
programs for health care as the federal government has dictated. The local level implements the
programs that have been dictated by the state and federal government. The United States health
care system cannot be said to be a true system due to its fragmentation and lacks centralization
decision making (Niles, 2014)
The Korean government involvement in the healthcare system is very comprehensive:
however, the management of the health care system, financing of the health care programs and
infrastructure is coordinated by the private sector. About the Centre for Health policy research,
the major roles of the Korean government include, setting policies, standardization of fees, and
provision of administration costs and the provision for the poor. Additionally, the operating
budgets are set by the government in synchronization with the providers, consumers as well as
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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
corporations. The Korean government commits itself to subsidizing the economically deprived
which consists of the 10 percent of the whole Korean population. The government also
subsidizes the cost of some people who need to purchase private health insurance (Lapolla,
2001)
Health Expenditure
In 2009, the unites states placed a budget of $2.5 trillion on the aggregate expenditure of
health care which is similar to $8,086 per individual and 17.6 percent of the U.S Gross Domestic
Product. As from 2009 to 2019 the health expenditure will encounter a gradual growth of 6.3
percent reaching a Gross Domestic Product of 19.6 percent by 2019. This expenditure is to cater
for the state art technology, new prescription of drugs, the costs of the healthcare provider to the
increasing number of the patients diagnosed with chronic diseases as well as the aging
population and the high administrative costs. Additionally, due to the ACA provisions that took
effect in 2014 the private health expenditure increased by 12.8 percent, where an estimation of
16 million of uninsured people signed up for the health insurance. Moreover, there was an
expectation of more the 22 million people to enroll for Medicaid and Children Health Insurance
program for the first time (Goldsteen, 2017)
Considering the Korean funding system, an integration of general taxes, specific taxes,
user charges, charitable contributions and premiums support the Korean health care system.
Under the Korean national health insurance system, all providers get reimbursed equally as set
by the uniform fee schedule for a service, irrespective of the provider’s reputation or
geographical location. According to the OECD's system, the total expenditure for the Korean
healthcare system is 73.7trillion equivalent to $57.7billion. This is similar to $1,879 per person,
totaling to the share of Gross Domestic Product of 6.9 percent as from 2009 far below the OECD
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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
average of 9.5 percent. Korea’s share remains at the fourth lowest among OECD countries with a
public share of 71.5 percent. The pharmaceutical care, outpatient and inpatient expenditures
account for the 23.7%, 33.0% and 32.1% of the health expenditure. Other allocations include
41.1% of hospitals, 28.1% on ambulatory healthcare, and 17.9% on pharmacies.
Health Insurance
In the United States, the health insurance coverage is provided by various public and
private sources. The federal government introduced its insurance program called the Medicare
program to cover the elderly citizens. The other citizens obtained a non-institutional insurance
coverage from non-employer based as well as employer-based. The military also has their
coverage from the veteran administration.
In the Republic of Korea, there was an introduction of the social health insurance in 1977
as from the National Health Insurance Act. The program was later expanded in 1979 which
included workers, government workers, and private teachers. This program is now enrolled to the
public after that achieving universal coverage. The insurance program in Korea is divided into
Employed and self-employed health insurance. The employed individual's insurance is paid by
their employers from their salary, and the self-employed have to pay the insurance themselves as
well as the foreigners.

Scope of Coverage
In the United States, the health system is tier bases where the types of coverage
are based on the amount of money that the patient pays. For instance, according to the
healthcare exchanges in America, people are allowed to choose from gold, silver and
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A Comparison between the United States and the Korean Health Care System.
bronze plans, where the gold is the most expensive, silver being less expensive and the
Bronze plan being the cheapest of all. The plans also cover a variety of services
according to their prices. The coverage may also vary from company to company and an
individual being covered by their employer may not necessarily acquire a better package
than an individual who purchases his policy (Skinner 208)
In South Korea, the health system is universal where every citizen is offered financial
protection. This is because it is compulsory for everyone to acquire an insurance
coverage regardless of their nationality or profession according to the Korean Law. The
policy covers similar health services for all individuals since they have relatively
equivalent prices (Jung, 1998)
Premium charges
In the United States, there are two forms of payments that are considered in healthcare,
that is the average total cost of services whoever who is paying for it, and the costs catered with
out of the pocket money by the consumer. The average spending per person per person in the
United States is slightly over $8,000 which is significant of the other countries. Despite the high
spending, the United States health care is still the best. These consumer costs are very complex
where they have to settle monthly premiums. When an individual visits a doctor, he must pay copay which ranges from $10 to 50. Beyond the co-pay, the patient is expected to settle the
deductibles which are the minimum amounts of to be played before the insurance intervenes.
The Korean healthcare system is unique in its insurance requirements. Most of the
insurance policies are employer-based and financed by nonprofit insurance societies
compensated by income-based premiums that are collected as a ...