South Korea's health spending returned to growth last year after falling in 2023 for the first time since records began. Personal health spending — covering inpatient care, outpatient visits and long-term care — topped 200 trillion won for the first time, and annual spending per person approached 4.2 million won.
Current health expenditure reached 216.6 trillion won ($156 billion) last year, up 6.5% from 203.4 trillion won a year earlier, according to the 2024 National Health Accounts released on the 22nd by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service. Current health expenditure measures total spending by the population on health care services and related goods over one year.
The measure had risen without interruption since data collection began in 1970 before declining for the first time in 2023, then reversed course within a year. Current health expenditure equaled 8.5% of gross domestic product, unchanged from a year earlier. Over the past five years, from 2020 to 2024, it grew at an average annual rate of 7.0%, 1.4 percentage points higher than the 5.6% pace of GDP growth over the same period.
Spending per person also rose. Current health expenditure came to 4.186 million won per capita last year, up 5.6% from 3.963 million won a year earlier.
By funding source, public funds — including government spending and compulsory insurance schemes — accounted for 129.4 trillion won, or 59.7% of the total. Private funds made up 87.2 trillion won, or 40.3%. Of that, household out-of-pocket payments totaled 67.2 trillion won, up 5.9% from a year earlier. Spending through voluntary insurance schemes, which include indemnity private insurance, rose 17.5% to 20 trillion won, with voluntary health insurance making up 19.6 trillion won.
By type of service, outpatient care was the largest category at 69.1 trillion won, or 31.9% of the total. Inpatient care followed at 52.5 trillion won (24.2%), medical goods at 46.2 trillion won (21.3%), long-term care at 28.5 trillion won (13.2%) and preventive care at 8.9 trillion won (4.1%). Spending on outpatient care, medical goods and long-term care grew faster than overall current health expenditure, while inpatient care grew more slowly.
Personal health spending, which combines inpatient, outpatient and long-term care services, rose 7.1% to 201.5 trillion won, crossing 200 trillion won for the first time. Collective health spending, by contrast, fell 7.0% to 15.1 trillion won as outlays on COVID-19 vaccinations and disease control declined.
By provider, hospitals accounted for 90.1 trillion won, or 41.6% of the total. Ambulatory health care providers took 66.7 trillion won (30.8%) and pharmacies 30.2 trillion won (14.0%).
Health spending is expected to keep rising this year. The government provisionally estimates current health expenditure will reach 225.3 trillion won in 2025, up 4.0% from last year.
