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KRW 122,377.9 Billion Confirmed for MOHW’s 2024 Budget

 

 

A total of KRW 122,377.9 billion has been confirmed for the 2024 budget of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Cho, KyooHong) through resolution of the National Assembly on December 21 (Thursday), 2023.

 

The 2024 budget has increased by 12.1% or KRW 13,194.9 billion from the 2023 budget of KRW 109,183.0 billion.

 

2023 Budget (A)	2024 Budget		Difference (% change)
	Government proposal (B)	Amount approved by the National Assembly (C)	Difference (C-B)	% change from the previous year (C-A)
109,183.0	122,453.8	122,377.9	△75.9*(△0.06%)	13,194.9(+12.1%)

* Majority of the budget cut stemmed from the KRW 2,62.6 billion decrease in the spending for enrollees of the National Health Insurance Service. The government submitted its budget proposal on September 2, 2023, and it was reviewed by the National Assembly during the budget review meeting on September 26. The meeting decided to freeze the National Health Insurance premium rate for 2024, and such decision resulted in the decrease in MOHW’s 2024 budget. If this particular budget item is excluded, the actual budget has been increased by KRW 186.7 billion.

 

 

 

 

The 2024 budget has been expanded mainly in the following areas:

 

【 Mental healthcare 】

(+ KRW 13.2 billion)

 

○ (Greater support for the treatment of mental illnesses) The government will spend KRW 900 million on assisting with the operation of facilities that treat and care for drug addicts and KRW 500 million on improving these facilities. In addition, the number of drug addicts eligible for financial support for treatment will be increased from 350 to 1,000.

 

○ (Building mental healthcare service infrastructure) The government will create a hospital bed availability information system and increase the number of beds allocated for accommodating emergency mental illness patients to facilitate timely hospitalization and treatment of persons with mental illness (110 beds, KRW 2.1 billion). Some KRW 700 million will be used to expand local community-based recovery support programs by operating 3 peer support shelters and 2 short-term shelters.

 

○ (Expansion of suicide prevention and counseling hotlines) KRW 1.7 billion will be allocated to support hiring additional 20 counselors earlier than scheduled to increase the counseling response rate amid the growing counseling demand, as well as to provide youths with counseling services via various media.

 

【 Support for childbirth and childcare 】

(+ KRW 33.3 billion)

 

○ (Support for at-risk pregnancies and introduction of Protected Birthing) KRW 4.2 billion will be spent to open 12 new local counseling centers aimed at helping at-risk pregnant women through counseling and anonymous childbirth in order to prevent out-of-hospital childbirths and child abandonment, given the fact that medical institutions are now required by law to report all childbirths.

 

○ (Childcare support) The government will roll out various programs to enhance the quality of childcare. Specifically, it will increase the monthly diaper subsidy for low-income families from KRW 80,000 to KRW 90,000, raise the infant formula subsidy (KRW 4.9 billion) from KRW 100,000 per month to KRW 110,000, open 2 regional support center for childcare (KRW 1.0 billion), and allocate KRW 10.8 billion for introducing a meal sanitation management subsidy for daycare centers.

 

【 Support for the weak and social services 】

(+ KRW 71.7 billion)

 

○ (A pilot project to support nursing fee for geriatric long-term care hospitals) The government will spend KRW 8.5 billion on a pilot project involving 10 designated institutions to develop a nursing service system befitting the needs of geriatric long-term care hospitals, thereby alleviating the care burden for the public and raising the quality of nursing services.

 

○ (Healthcare for the elderly) The government will newly provide KRW 2.0 billion for the treatment of incontinence and spend KRW 1.2 billion to expand the support for knee joint surgery by 1,000 persons from 2,183 to 3,183 in an effort to improve the quality of life for the elderly.

 

○ (Disability pension) The “fringe benefit” available to severely handicapped persons to cover the additional expenses they incur due to their disabilities will be increased for the first time in 11 years from KRW 80,000 to KRW 90,000 per month (KRW 26.9 billion).

 

○ (Customized support for the person with disability) A total of KRW 600 million will be newly allocated for education and expertise allowance (KRW 50,000 per month) for individuals who provide care services to persons with the most severe developmental disabilities. In addition, an organization dedicated to serving visually and hearing-impaired persons will be set up, and fact-finding surveys on visually and hearing-impaired persons and persons with borderline intelligence will be conducted.

 

○ (City/Province Public Agency for Social Service) The government will increase the expenditure on supporting the advancement of social services including managing the quality of social services, providing consulting from private institutions, and developing and spreading new social services (16 agencies, KRW 500 million per agency).

 

※ The government’s budget proposal excluded the operating expenses of these public agencies, considering the fact that these agencies will be established and operated by City/Province.

 

 

【 Greater focus on essential healthcare 】

(+ KRW 57.0 billion)

 

○ (Enhanced capacity of public hospitals) Incentives will be provided on a temporary basis to help 41 public medical institutions including local medical centers carry out management innovation (incentives will range from KRW 4.8 billion to KRW 1.2 billion depending on the level of recipient medical institutions classified into A, B, and C, and the total amount of incentives will be KRW 51.4 billion). Additionally, KRW 1.0 billion will provided for the modernization of facilities at local medical centers.

 

○ (Infrastructure augmentation) Infrastructure augmentation will include introducing robotic surgery equipment (2 units, KRW 1.4 billion) for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy and installing state-of-the-art equipment at local cancer centers (KRW 500 million), establishing a blood products and supply center (Hanmaeum Blood Center, KRW 400 million), and purchasing disaster and medical emergency response vehicles for the National Emergency Medical Center (5 vehicles, KRW 300 million).

 

□ The budget cut made during the deliberation by the National Assembly was caused primarily by the changes in required budget that arose after the government’s budget proposal had been submitted.

 

○ Two primary changes are the decrease in the amount of support (△KRW 262.6 billion) for enrollees of the National Health Insurance Service following the decision to freeze the 2024 National Health Insurance rate and the budget adjustment (△KRW 5.9 billion) from the delayed construction of the Smart Pharmaceutical Factory Platform and the Pharmaceutical Industry Future Workforce Training Center.

 

□ The Ministry of Health and Welfare will allocate the budget and make a budget implementation plan accordingly in a way that ensures that the budget approved by the National Assembly will be implemented as promptly and accurately as possible once the 2024 fiscal year starts. ///