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○ First, the explanation from the hospital is correct. You were charged more because you are not covered by the Korean National Health Insurance.
○The Republic of Korea administers the Korean National Health Insurance system and provides a method for non-Korean citizens to access health care here.
- In the event you are employed by a Korean institution that provides Korean health insurance to their employees or you have stayed in Korea over three months, you are eligible to apply for Korean National Health.
- Foreigners enrolled in the Korean National Health Insurance system will always be charged as the same rate as Korean citizens.
○Foreigners enrolled in the Korean National Health Insurance system will always be charged as the same rate as Korean citizens.
○Next, we would like to introduce you to ‘non-deductible’ treatments. By the medical laws, each medical institution is obliged to present the list of ‘non-deductible’ treatments on brochures or websites and it is prohibited for them to overcharge for the treatments.
○Such obligation duty for notification and regulations for overcharges also are applied only to the members covered by the national health insurance and hence, they are not obliged to notify foreigners that are not a joint member of the national health insurance.
○ Therefore, the cost for treatments for non-registered foreigners can be set by each medical institutions and it is not subject to be pre-notified by any lists, booklets, or bills