To improve financial protection against catastrophic illness, the Korean government expanded the benefit coverage of the National Health Insurance (NHI) for cancer patients in 2005. This paper examined whether the policy has reduced income-inequality in the use of tertiary care hospitals.

This dissertation explores the optimum structure of payment systems for providers in health care markets as is represented by the mix of prospective and cost-based payments. Based on the theory of incentive contracts, I characterize reimbursement systems in terms of financial risks and...

South Korea introduced public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2008. This study examined the patterns of and factors associated with public long-term care (LTC) utilization among older LTCI beneficiaries in Korea, with special attention to the policy for subsidizing the co-payments of lower...

This paper compares the extent to which the principle of "equal treatment for equal need"(ETEN) is maintained in the health care delivery systems of Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Deviations in the degree to which health care is distributed according to need are measured by an index of...

The Republic of Korea achieved universal health coverage in 1989, twelve years after the introduction of mandatory health insurance for employees in large corporations. Political legitimization of the authoritarian regime and rapid economic growth contributed to the rapid extension of health...