SEOUL, KOREA - As the healthcare spending on elderly members increased, the overall healthcare cost for the first half has risen by the largest margin in four years. According to data "1H 2014 Healthcare Insurance Statistics" published by the National Health Insurance Service on September 3, the total medical cost (NHIC payments plus patients' copayment amount) for the first six months of the year was 26.41 trillion won, up 6.6 percent from the same period a year ago. This is the largest increase since 2010.

 

Per-capita monthly medical cost was 87,900 won, up 5.9 percent, with the average medical treatment days in a month at 1.64 days, 1.9 percent higher than a year before. As for the healthcare expenditure on elderly patients over 65 years of age, it rose 8.3 percent to 9,670.3 billion won from a year ago. The share of elderly treatment cost in total was 30.8 percent in 2008, followed by 33.3 percent in 2011 and 35.4 percent in 2013, and 36.6 percent in the first half of this year.

 

Per-capita monthly medical cost for patients over 65 years was 276,824 won, with the monthly average medical treatment days at 4.32 days. Comparing to those below 65 years, this is 4.4 times for medical cost and 3.4 times for treatment days. The Health Insurance Policy Research Institute estimated that the elderly medical cost would surpass the 20-trillion-won level this year for the first time. The elderly medical cost last year was 18,056.5 billion won.