Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Opinion

A sickness benefit for all, leaving no one behind: Daseul Moon, Hongjo Choi; Ann Occup Environ Med 2025;e25. Published online July 28, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2025.37.e25 [Accepted]

Abstract PDF: South Korea’s pilot sickness benefit program, launched in 2022 across six regions and currently operating in 14 regions as of 2025, represents a critical juncture in the country’s social protection development. While ostensibly designed with inclusive eligibility criteria, the program reveals fundamental paradoxes that illuminate deeper structural inequalities within Korea's dualized labor market. This opinion piece examines how current design choices risk undermining universal health coverage goals by systematically excluding the most precarious workers. The program’s design features—including low replacement rates (60% of the minimum wage) and extended waiting periods—created perverse incentives where the most vulnerable workers accepted the least favorable conditions. This pattern exemplifies what Korpi and Palme termed the “paradox of redistribution,” where targeted approaches ultimately prove less effective than universal ones, with the second phase’s restriction to the bottom 50% income bracket threatening to exacerbate this paradox. Successful implementation will depend on integrating equity, people-centered design, and gender-transformative perspectives into every phase—design, operation, evaluation, and reform. In doing so, South Korea has the opportunity to offer a model of sickness protection that does not simply patch gaps, but actively reshapes the structures that produce health and economic inequalities in the first place.

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Original Article

Estimation of Demand and Supply for Occupational and Environmental Medicine Specialties in Korea (II): Demand Estimation and Demand-Supply Balance: Yoomi Chae, Jungwon Kim, Jonghan Leem; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2011;23(1):80-88. Published online March 31, 2011; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2011.23.1.80

OBJECTIVES
To estimate the demand and demand-supply balances of occupational and environmental medical specialties (OEMS) in the target year of 2020.
METHODS
We adopted a new OEMS demand model based on the situations of periodic workers' health examination (PHE) agencies, health management agencies (HMA), and legal enforcement for health and safety systems in Korea. The model uses data selected primarily from the database of the Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (KSOEM), a survey for certified members of KSOEM, statistics and internal documents from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL).
RESULTS
From the data and assumptions, newly demanded OEMS were 193 for workers who had received PHE, and 205 based on total workers for PHE in 2020 for PHE. But no OEMS for HMA area is demanded. Comparing with the calculated numbers of supply estimates, the demand was slightly higher, but could be balanced if MOEL kept consistent and unchanging policies.
CONCLUSIONS
The study results suggest that the demand-supply balance of OEMS is mainly influenced by the policy of MOEL. Further studies are needed examining more detailed data and statistics about PHE agencies, HMA and considering MOEL policies are needed to configuring more sophisticated and need-included estimation.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Residency programs and the outlook for occupational and environmental medicine in Korea
Youngil Lee, Jungwon Kim, Yoomi Chae
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.2015;[Epub] CrossRef

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