Endocrine Abstracts

South Korea has a universal health coverage system that the National Health Insurance covers approximately 98% of the overall Korean population. The claims data of HIRA contains 46 million patients per year that account for 90% of the total population in Korea and include claims from almost 80,000 healthcare service providers across South Korea as of 2011. National Health Insurance (NHI) reimbursement coverage continues to expand and there will be full reimbursement of cancer, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and rare diseases by 2017. The proportion of GDP spent on healthcare will keep growing from the current 7.5%, driven by the ageing population. The claims data of HIRA is collected when healthcare service providers in South Korea seek reimbursements for healthcare services that the National Health Insurance Corporation agrees to cover. The annual number of Korean patients that submitted health insurance claims is approximately 46 million. The claims data of HIRA is a national data compiled from healthcare providers across the country that corresponds to the number of claims submitted by patients. In addition, the claims from patients with medical aid program, government expenditures, and veteran patients are also included in the claims data. According to the National Health Statistics 2015: National Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted by Ministry of Health and Welfare, Prevalence and trends in obesity among Korean adults were incresed since 1998. Percent of adults aged 20 years and over with obesity was 25.1% in 1998 and 39.7% in 2015.