"Last year, 10.9 trillion won in medical benefits...53% of medical expenses for people over 65 years of age"

Last year, more than 1.517 million medical benefit recipients were provided, with a total of 10.88 trillion won.

Although the number of recipients decreased by 0.3% compared to 2022, the total salary cost increased by 8.3% and the per capita salary cost increased by 7.7% from W6.63 million to W7.14 million.

Among the recipients of medical benefits, 42.4% of the elderly aged 65 or older accounted for 53.8% of the salary expenses.

The most common diseases treated by recipients were gingivitis and periodontal disease, followed by acute bronchitis and essential hypertension.

Medical benefits are a system in which the government provides almost full medical expenses to low-income people with median income of 40% or less.

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the National Health Insurance Service published medical benefit statistics together last year.