J Korean Med Sci.  2012 May;27(Suppl):S13-S20. 10.3346/jkms.2012.27.S.S13.

Trends in Scale and Structure of Korea's Health Expenditure over Last Three Decades (1980-2009): Financing, Functions and Providers

• Jeong HS
• Shin JW

• KMID: 1714483
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2012.27.S.S13

Abstract

This paper introduces statistics related to the size and composition of Korea's total health expenditure. The figures produced were tailored to the OECD's system of health accounts. Korea's total health expenditure in 2009 was estimated at 73.7 trillion won (US$ 57.7 billion). The annual per capita health expenditure was equivalent to US$ PPP 1,879. Korea's total health expenditure as a share of gross domestic product was 6.9% in 2009, far below the OECD average of 9.5%. Korea's public financing share of total health expenditure increased rapidly from less than 50% before 2000 to 58.2% in 2009. However, despite this growth, Korea's share remained the fourth lowest among OECD countries that had an average public share of 71.5%. Inpatient, outpatient, and pharmaceutical care accounted for 32.1%, 33.0%, and 23.7% of current health expenditure in 2009, respectively. A total of 41.1% of current health expenditure went to hospitals, 28.1% to providers of ambulatory healthcare (15.9% on doctor's clinics), and 17.9% to pharmacies. More investment in the translation of national health account data into policy-relevant information is suggested for future progress.

Keyword

Total Health Expenditure; Current Health Expenditure; Public Health Expenditure; System of Health Accounts (SHA); National Health Accounts (NHA)

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care/economics/*trends
Health Expenditures/statistics & numerical data/*trends
Humans
Republic of Korea

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Types of household by area and by number of household members.

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  Fig. 2 Share of current health expenditure (CHE) by function.

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  Fig. 3 Share of current health expenditure (CHE) by provider.

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  Fig. 4 Total health expenditure (THE) as per capita US$ PPP and Share of GDP. Data source: OECD (21). Base year is 2009 except Australia, Japan, Portugal, Turkey (2008), and Greece (2007). Netherlands: not available.

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