Socio-economic Change and Health Care System in Rural Korea

한국농촌의 사회경제적(社會經濟的) 변화와 보건의료체계(保健醫療體系)

During the last half a century the Korean rural society have experienced drastic changes : the retreat of Japan from the colonial interference and suppression in 1945, the Korean war and disorder in the 1950s, the implementation of the first and second five-year economic development plans in the 1960s, the ambitious implementation of the new village movement called Saemaul Undong to modernize the traditionally stagnant rural village in the 1970s, and socioeconomic and political turmoil in the 1980s. In this complex process of change the rural health care system in Korea was grdually reformed. This paper reviews the socioeconomic change and the basis of the changing structure of the health care system in rural Korea, on the basis of the existing literature and secondary data. Thus this is not a research paper but a review article in its nature. After reviewing the past and present situation, the directions and strategies for the reformation of the rural health care system are suggested.