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In the midst of continuous debate over whether Chinese citizens are contributing to the shortfall in South Korea’s national health insurance funds, it has been verified that they also represent the biggest portion of losses in health insurance premiums.

As per information obtained by Kim Mi-ae, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the People Power Party, from the National Health Insurance Service on the 17th, the total amount of health insurance premiums for foreign nationals that were recorded as losses amounted to 7.5 billion South Korean won by the first half of this year. This covers 20,041 cases.

A write-off happens when foreign nationals, who have failed to pay their health insurance premiums, leave for a long time or move away, making it impossible to recover the outstanding amounts. This essentially represents a loss adjustment for the unpaid balances. These write-off figures were 600 million South Korean won in 2021 but rose to 1.4 billion in 2022, 8 billion in 2023, and reached 19.9 billion last year. Notably, the sharp rise last year was caused by the National Health Insurance Service’s general write-off of unpaid premiums from those who had been absent for an extended period.

Analyzing this year’s 7.5 billion Korean won in write-offs according to nationality, Chinese individuals made up the biggest portion at 2.1 billion (28%), followed by Vietnamese (1.4 billion, 19%) and Uzbeki (500 million, 7%).

The problem is that there is still a substantial amount of overdue premiums that may be written off in the future. At present, the uncollected overdue premiums from foreign nationals total 37.4 billion South Korean won. By nationality, Chinese individuals owe the highest amount at 11.5 billion (30.7%), followed by Vietnamese (4.8 billion, 12.8%) and Uzbeki (4.2 billion, 11.2%). The top three countries represent more than half of the total.

Rep. Kim Mi-ae said, “Although China has the largest number of outstanding premiums, the National Health Insurance Service is misleading the public by highlighting that only 4.7% of Chinese households have unpaid bills,” and added, “What South Koreans are concerned about is not this deception but the actual number of households that are avoiding paying their insurance.” She also pointed out, “The issue of unpaid health insurance premiums among Chinese nationals and other foreigners is not just a numerical problem, but a structural one caused by insufficient information and poor administration,” and stressed, “A thorough strategy is required to tackle the gaps in managing health insurance for foreign nationals.”