• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.122-140
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• 2019

Providing free primary care to everyone is an important goal pursued by many countries under universal health care programs. Countries like India need to efficiently utilize their limited capacities towards this purpose. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, patients incur substantial travel and out-of-pocket expenses for getting primary care from publicly-funded facilities. We propose a set-covering optimization model to assist health policy-makers in managing existing capacity in a better way. Decision-making should consider upgrading centers with better potential to reduce patient expenses and reallocating capacities from less preferred facilities. A multinomial logit choice model is used to predict the preferences. In this article, a brief background and literature survey along with the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model are presented. The working of the model is illustrated with the help of numerical experiments.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2022

South Korea is not a wasteland of publicly funded health care-instead, it has a good medical social security system known as the national health insurance (NHI). The NHI of Korea has three unique features; (1) low premiums, low insurance fees, and low coverage; (2) obligatory designation of medical institutions; (3) and allowance of non-benefit services. These features have made hospitals and doctors interested in profit-seeking. However, the commercialization of medical institutions has taken place in both private- and public-established sectors. A basic problem of commercialization is the co-existence of the obligatory designation of medical institutions and non-benefit services. The problem became worse in the Kim Dae-Jung government because it officially permitted non-benefit services. Since 2000, the Korean government has consistently pursued benefit extension policies, but the coverage rates of the NHI have stagnated. In addition, premiums and current medical expenses have markedly increased because policy-makers have emphasized accessibility to the NHI, while ignoring important principles of medical social security such as a needs-based approach and patient-referral system. In order to resolve the commercialization problem, the obligatory designation of medical institutions to the NHI should be changed to a contract system, and non-benefit services should be prohibited at NHI institutions. We must re-establish the patient-referral system via a needs-based approach. We also need to build a primary healthcare system and public health policies. We should make a long-term plan for healthcare reform.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2022

The concept of "public health care (public health and medical services)" as discussed in South Korea is used in an unclear sense, with a meaning unlike the terminology used worldwide. The terms "public health care (public health and medical services)" and "health care (health and medical services)" have the same legal definition in Korea. Globally, "public health care (public health and medical services)" refers to medical services provided to the public that are operated as publicly funded resources, but in Korea, this term is confined to limited medical services prescribed by the government. The following considerations regarding "public health care (public health and medical services)" in Korea are proposed: All medical services performed by the state, regional governments, health care institutions, or health care workers to protect and promote the health of the people should be clearly established as "public health care (public health and medical services)" by definition. The financial burden borne by the state through national health insurance should be increased to an appropriate level to clarify the state's responsibility. Improving public health is an urgent priority in Korea, and this goal can be achieved by improving regional public health through systematic relationships between the state and regional governments, establishing a Ministry of Health, and efficiently allocating public health doctors who are important for providing regional medical care in rural and remote areas. It will be possible to actively deal with infectious diseases at the national level through establishment of a Ministry of Disease Control and Prevention.