ESS Paper Series No. 1

Achieving health insurance for all. Lessons from the Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea [Kwon, 2002] which has gradually extended compulsory health insurance to all workers over a period of 12 years (from 1977 to 1989): wage earners of large corporations with more than 500 workers were first to be covered, government employees and teachers came next, followed gradually by workers in increasingly small enterprises. Extension to the self-employed began through pilot programmes before being generalized.