Health Insurance in Korea

Health insurance in Korea is very important for all the foreigners especially for those who are living with their families.  Many of the foreigners consider it useless as they have very little experience to visit hospitals. Or sometimes they believe it is just worth less to be insured having no major disease. In this case they use some sort of OTC drugs to cope with their allergies and fever. Anyway people with different considerations have different approaches. However it is worth mentioned that “international students MUST be insured according to the regulations by the Korean ministry of education”.

 I was among those people who consider the insurance as the wastage of money. But recently my three friends came across certain conditions which compels me to reconsider my opinion. They got some serious problems including major disease which not only costs a lot but at the same times get a lot of trouble. Since I have family here now, it is quite important to be insured. In this blog I am sharing my experience with you all so that you may not be able to face those problems which I have faced while Insuring health in Ansan near Hanyang University ERICA campus.. 

There are two types of insurance for students;

1-      Private Health Insurance costing less amount per month but also  has a complicated system of recovery and the return is very less may be 10-20%. Mostly the single students like to have this kind of health insurance.

 In this case you can use the following guidelines to be insured. 

1. Go to  www.foreignerdb.com/hanyang

2. Fill out the student insurance application form (Please note that you must input your gender and birth date correctly)

3. Click “입력” after completing the form

4. Check the information you filled out and click “입력” at the bottom of the page.

5. Check the amount to pay and the bank account number

6. You should transfer the fee to the account given within 5 days in order to proceed your application.

How to claim on insurance

1. Log-in at  www.foreignerdb.com/hanyang 

2. Choose “보험금청구 Claim insurance” in the left part

3. Upload a scanned copy of receipts and other documents.

        2-   National Health Insurance is government system costing more but can cover up to 50-70% expenses at the spot in case of visiting hospital.

http://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/Living-in-Korea/National-Health-Insurance-for-Foreign-Nationals

In this case you need to visit the nearby Health Insurance center.

The most important problem is the insufficient information provided by the NHI website as they didn’t mentioned which documents are necessary for the health insurance process. They have a phone service which also fails to give you a clear concept about how and when to get health insurance.

The documents you may required for health insurance are

1-Alien cards of you and your family

2-Make sure you have same address on alien registration card.

3-Bank account number/ photo copy
4- Marriage certificate, which can be obtained from nearby Immigration office 

5- You can apply after completion of 3 months after your arrival in Korea (honestly I don’t know the exact reason).

The most surprising thing for me during all the process was that nobody can speak English well at Ansan Health Insurance center which was quite discouraging . So make sure you have all the required documents or you can seek help from Korean friend or your class fellow. They will cost you around 44000 won at the spot and you need to submit the same amount on regular bases on 24^th of every month.. They will issue you a certificate. Whenever you visit hospital you need to take your Alien ID card with you and they will make you sure the discount according to their limits.

DIRECTIONS:

Hereby given are the directions for the ANSAN HEALTH INSURANCE Center.

Choji Subway Station Exit.1 takes right just after the exit

Keep right at the Sagori (Choraha) 

Walk for 15 minutes.

If you are in hurry take a taxi, it will cost you around 2500 won

Stay blessed &

Have a nice/healthy stay in Korea.