Is Universal Health Insurance Superior in Terms of Healthcare Payment? Estimating Financial Burden of Healthcare in Korea: 2009 to 2019

This study estimates the financial burden of healthcare in Korea using the National Survey of Tax and Benefit panel data from 2009 to 2019. The sum of a household’s premium and out-of-pocket medical expenses defines the household financial burden of healthcare. We find that the household financial burden is regressive to income. We also find that the high burden household whose financial burden is over 10% of their household income accounts for about 30% of total household. This result suggests that equity in contribution to healthcare finance does not work well in Korea, which chose the universal health system that emphasizes the progressive contribution by income to medical finance.