"The South Korean health care system is a mix of public and private financing. Funds for health care are raised mainly from equally important sources: mandatory health insurance contributions and OOP [Out Of Pocket] payments by patients. As the government is responsible for health care services, it subsidizes a substantial portion of health care funding.15"NHI [National Health Insurance], which provides universal coverage, is predominantly funded through contributions by employees, employers and the self-employed (including contributions by the state as an employer of civil servants). About 36% of funding is private, mainly in the form of direct payments and cost sharing…

"South Korea has a relatively low, but rapidly growing, level of health expenditure compared to other OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries (Ko, 2008).16 Total health care expenditure has risen steadily from about 4.4% in 1990 to 6.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007. Table 3.1 shows that the amount spent on health care has risen in both absolute and relative terms, with total health expenditure growing rapidly. This growth was more pronounced in public health expenditure, which steadily increased its share of total health expenditure. Despite this increase, public sources of spending as a proportion of…