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| President Yoon Suk Yeol gives an opening speech during a joint New Year policy briefing by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, held at Cheong Wa Dae, the former presidential office, in Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps |
President stresses inclusive welfare policies
By Lee Hyo-jin
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will expedite its pension reform plan, which has been set as one of the Yoon Suk yeol administration's top three agendas for this year, along with labor and education.
During a New Year's policy briefing to the president, Monday, Health Minister Cho Kyu-hong said his ministry will announce detailed estimates of the state-run pension fund by the end of this month, two months earlier than its initial plan to unveil the data in March.
Based on the forecast, the ministry will lay out a comprehensive pension management plan to be submitted to the National Assembly by October. The reform plans will focus on achieving sustainability of the pension funds and fairness across generations, as well as guaranteeing subscribers with sufficient retirement income.
Due to structural problems as well as uncontrollable factors like the rapidly aging population, the state pension fund is expected to be depleted by 2055. Under the current framework, the young generations, or those born in the 1990s, may not be able to receive any retirement income even if they pay monthly premiums.
Despite the looming pension crisis, however, previous governments have failed to carry out bold reform projects, as plans to overhaul the pension system ― which would likely entail increases in premium rates ― have led to public backlash.
Yoon stressed in his New Year's speech that overhauling the state pension system is among the three major reform projects along with education and labor that "cannot be delayed any longer."
During the briefing, Yoon pointed to the importance of universal welfare policies that can support all members of society.
"The national health insurance system could be the best example of universal welfare policies. Everyone, regardless of their social status or income, should be guaranteed access to healthcare services for the public interest," Yoon said. "In that sense, welfare policies should be devised based on a scientific approach solely for the benefit of the people, without any political or ideological interventions."
In addition to the pension reform, the health ministry will also come up with detailed health insurance reform plans in the latter half of this year, seeking to ensure the financial stability of the National Health Insurance Service.
The plans will include rectifying the medical service fee scheme, improving fiscal transparency, ensuring fairness among Korean and foreign nationals, as well as ways to prevent exploitation by certain subscribers.
During the policy briefing, the health authorities also unveiled a set of response measures to the imminent ultra-aged society. The nation is expected to become a super-aged society in 2025, in which 20 percent of its population will be aged 65 and over.
In addition to more expanded policies for the elderly in regard to their income and employment, the health authorities seek to introduce a co-housing environment for the seniors, where they will be able to receive integrated welfare services including access to healthcare and leisure activities.
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic measures, the ministry plans to focus its capacity on preventing the influx of infections from China through tightened quarantine measures on those traveling from the neighboring country, along with consistent monitoring of the virus situation in different countries.
Beginning next week, the government will discuss roadmaps for lifting the indoor mask mandate, one of the last remaining pandemic restrictions here.
"We may begin to discuss in earnest next week an adjustment of the indoor mask requirement if we see the number of critical patients decrease further to a stable level this week," Jung Ki-suk, head of the government's COVID-19 special response team, said during a briefing, Monday.
His remarks came as the country met two out of four criteria set by the health authorities last month, based on which the government can relax the mask mandate. The four criteria are: a stable number of daily infections, a reduction in the number of critical cases, a sufficient capacity of ICU beds to treat critically ill patients, as well as sufficient booster vaccination rates among the elderly.
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