South Korea Targets Visible Healthcare Reform Results in 2025 While Strengthening Protection for Vulnerable Groups

South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare announced its "2025 Major Policy Implementation Plan" on August 11, setting ambitious goals for visible healthcare reform achievements while strengthening protections for socially vulnerable populations despite challenging economic conditions. The government has raised the standard median income for three consecutive years and expanded medical reform initiatives to improve public healthcare accessibility.

The ministry's core healthcare reform objectives for 2025 include four key tasks: creating visible healthcare reform results, providing competent regional and essential medical care, reducing the medical cost burden on citizens, and building a healthcare environment responsive to future needs. Value-based healthcare system restructuring policies are expected to be more comprehensively implemented throughout 2025.

Major policy initiatives include restructuring acute care beds according to medical demand and bed functions, policy interventions to resolve fee imbalances, expanded use of public policy fees, expansion of alternative payment systems linking performance and compensation, and reorganization of evaluation systems linking institutional performance and compensation.

Accelerated Digital Healthcare Infrastructure Development

In digital healthcare, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Information Service officially launched a medical records storage system for closed medical institutions on July 21. This system safely stores and conveniently issues medical records from closed hospitals, significantly helping ensure medical continuity for patients—a service comparable to health information exchanges in the United States.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) is accepting applications for Biosafety Level 3 (BL3) professional training courses this year and has announced research and development projects for 2026, along with partial amendments to healthcare-associated infection surveillance system regulations. These measures are evaluated as strengthening national biosafety capabilities and advancing medical infection prevention systems.

Dramatically Expanded Healthcare Access for Vulnerable Groups

Despite economic difficulties, the government is strengthening medical support for socially vulnerable groups. By raising the standard median income for three consecutive years, they have expanded the range of medical aid recipients and improved healthcare accessibility for low-income populations, reflecting policy approaches seen in other developed nations addressing healthcare equity.

In regional and essential medical care, the government is developing multi-faceted solutions to address healthcare workforce shortages. These include expanding support for regional hub hospitals, strengthening specialist training programs in essential medical fields, and improving working conditions for medical staff to address regional medical imbalances.

For medical cost burden reduction, the government continues pursuing health insurance coverage expansion policies. Key components include improving the self-payment ceiling system for severe disease patients, strengthening management of non-covered medical expenses, and expanding health insurance coverage in essential medical fields.

Responding to Future Healthcare Environment Changes

To respond to future medical technologies including artificial intelligence, digital healthcare, and personalized medicine, the government continues expanding institutional foundations. Particular emphasis is placed on regulatory improvements for safe introduction of AI medical devices and establishing approval and review systems for digital therapeutics.

Additionally, strengthening chronic disease management systems in preparation for an aging society, expanding mental health services, and advancing infectious disease response capabilities are set as major tasks. Improvements to public health crisis response systems based on COVID-19 pandemic experience continue to be promoted.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare official stated, "2025 will be the inaugural year when healthcare reform policies are implemented in earnest in the field," adding, "we will concentrate all policy capabilities on improving healthcare service quality and accessibility that citizens can tangibly experience."

Meanwhile, the medical community suggests that more specific measures are needed to address the practical effectiveness of government policies and healthcare workforce shortages. Continuous communication with the medical community during policy implementation processes appears crucial.

These healthcare reforms mirror similar value-based care transitions in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, where healthcare systems have evolved to emphasize outcomes over volume while maintaining universal coverage principles. South Korea's approach demonstrates how nations can simultaneously pursue technological advancement and social equity in healthcare delivery.

The success of these initiatives will likely influence healthcare policy development across Asia, where many countries face similar challenges of aging populations, rising medical costs, and the need to integrate advanced medical technologies while ensuring equitable access to care.

Original Korean Article: https://trendy.storydot.kr/archives/674

---

Original Article (Korean): Read in Korean