Health Insurance Premiums (PG) [Yonhap News] 

The criteria for additional health insurance premium payments for office workers who earn income outside of their salaries—such as interest, dividends, or building rental income—are set to become significantly stricter.

As the deduction amount excluded from non-salary income is reduced from the current 20 million won to 10 million won, the burden of health insurance premiums for employed subscribers with side income is expected to increase further.

According to the healthcare sector on the 27th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare reported a reform plan for the health insurance premium assessment system, including these details, to the subcommittee of the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee held on the 23rd of this month.

Generally, health insurance premiums paid by office workers are divided into two types: "remuneration-based premiums" levied on the base salary received from the company, and "income-based premiums" levied separately on side income earned from interest, dividends, rentals, or business activities. Until now, even if office workers had non-salary income, they paid income-based premiums after deducting a certain amount.

One of the key points of this reform is to halve this deduction amount, used when calculating income-based premiums, from the existing 20 million won to 10 million won. The intention is to improve equity among subscribers by reducing the deduction benefit that was previously granted only to employed subscribers, unlike regional subscribers who pay premiums based on their total comprehensive income.

The deduction threshold for non-salary income for office workers has been continuously lowered from 72 million won in September 2012 to 34 million won in July 2018, and to 20 million won in September 2022.

Following the principle that the same income should be subject to the same insurance premiums, the government has been phasing out benefits that were provided only to a portion of all employed subscribers.

This measure will affect 1.78 million employed subscribers who will now have to pay additional income-based premiums or see their burden increase. This accounts for 8.9% of all employed subscribers. The government expects this reform to secure 707 billion won in annual health insurance revenue.

While implementing the national policy task of establishing fair assessment criteria, the government plans to invest the secured funds into essential areas such as expanding support for regional and essential medical care, and strengthening coverage for rare and severe diseases.