3.44 Tril. Won of Benefits Goes to Foreigners
People Power Party lawmaker Kang Gi-yun remarked on Oct. 20 that Chinese account for more than 70 percent of foreigners who benefited from the national health insurance of South Korea from 2015 to June this year and a total of 3,442.2 billion won of national health insurance benefits went to foreigners from 20 countries in that period.
The benefits include 2,464.1 billion won provided for Chinese, 215.3 billion won for Vietnamese and 183.2 billion won for those from the United States. In addition, those from Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Canada, the Philippines and Japan received 77 billion won, 71.9 billion won, 53.5 billion won, 53.2 billion won and 52.3 billion won in insurance benefits, respectively.
During the same period, 331,384 foreigners illegally received 31.6 billion won of national health insurance benefits and only 51.7 percent of the total was retrieved. “There are some foreigners who stay in South Korea for a short period of time to capitalize on the national health insurance,” the lawmaker pointed out.