Health Care in Korea

Each time I live overseas, I seem to end up at the local facility for some type of health care.  I find each experience immensely fascinating while comparing the ease, time, facility, quality of care and the expense. 

While walking into the facility, I saw a gentleman about to cross the street with IV-pole in hand, as he wheeled it along.  I believe I remember being told that here, food isn’t a given.  Family is expected to provide food. So it is not unusual to see someone in hospital garb within a block or two at a local restaurant. 

As always, we walked inside and registered.  This registration was easy - it was in the “international clinic,” so our nurse/guide spoke English.  She took us individually through the entire process, even walking us where we needed to go (whether that’s the norm or a slow day, I’m not sure).  We were taken to the pediatric unit.  There was a playground (like one you’d see outside for young children).  A few children were crawling around in it, the rest (15-20) were sitting with their mothers, waiting to be seen.

We were originally told we’d have to wait until after everyone who had appointments was seen.  I’m not sure what happened, but our daughter was immediately weighed and measured then brought straightaway to the doctor’s office.  His office was a typical office -- not of a doctor, but of an executive in Asia.  We sat on chairs - there was a sofa in the room - and chatted with the doctor. 

He analyzed the situation, wrote down his diagnosis and prescription.  But he kept it.  We were a bit confused that we weren’t given the Rx.  But we were told to go to the international clinic again (I believe).  We walked out a bit perplexed and returned to the nurse’s station.  They told us  that the Rx will be typed up and ready at the “cashier’s box.”  The international clinic then took us to the “cashier’s box” (booth) and we paid our fee: 35,000 won ($35) and received our receipt with all the information and another woman printed out the Rx.  We were told to exit the facility and we’d find a number of pharmacies to fill the Rx. 

The pharmacy was across the street and filled two Rxs for 15,000 won ($15). 

We returned to our car in the parking garage, showed the lady our ticket.  She asked for our hospital receipt.  We showed that to her.  We exited without a charge (for parking) and the entire outing was exactly one hour long.

That one hour included:

• Parking
• Finding where we went
• Registering as a new patient
• Walk-in appointment to see the doctor
• Paying in full
• Walking off the grounds to purchase the Rx - and purchasing it
• Returning to the car and driving out

Total expense ($50) included:

• International Clinic (translation/walk-through service)
• Doctor’s visit - not co-pay - but amount in full
• Two Rxs
• Parking (which was free)
  

I am currently researching South Korean health care system.  I’ll give an update on what I find out.  I'm attaching two PDFs I found, but they are a bit dated.  I'm going to explore more recent analyses.
www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger/korean.html

I found an interesting blog on Korean Health Care.  Very in-depth.   Takes a while to read and some comments are a bit off-point and bias, but the author and some of the contributors discusses the issue very well.

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/healthcare-system-in-korea.html