The 2023 Outlook for Health Care Policy

Abstract

In 2023, despite the prospects of the easing if COVID-19 restrictions and returning to a normal way of life, the household situation is expected to worsen due to interest rate hikes and the continuing high inflation. The government announced in its 2022-2026 National Fiscal Management Plan that it would pursue fiscal soundness management and a highly intensive expenditure restructuring. A decline in household real income could lead to a lowering of the average health level of the people and a deepening of health inequality by reducing health-beneficial spending and the resilience of the low-income households. Korea controls the quality, accessibility, and cost of its health care system through a single health insurance system that applies to all citizens. If health insurance spending reform and health policy are not interconnected enough, the achievements of health promotion in the past may regress. Health care policy in 2023 needs innovation that is more responsive to the people's economic difficulties and achieves efficient spending. Innovation towards a value-based health care system, which has remained in the discourse in the face of inertial resistance from the health care system, is a dual-handed strategy that not only controls unnecessary expenditures in a government austerity but also improves the health performance of the health care system.