The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Kwon Deok-chul) announced on 15 April 2021 the establishment of the “Sickness Benefits System Planning Advisory Committee” (hereinafter referred to as the “Advisory Committee”) and held the first meeting. Except for Korea and some states in the United States, all OECD countries have already operated the sickness benefits system, and the need for it emerged as Korea suffered from COVID-19. In July of this year, the government announced in the ‘Korean New Deal Comprehensive Plan’ to perform policy research on how to introduce sickness benefits in Korea(2021) and promote its pilot project (2022). In the same month, the tripartite consultation, labor-management-government, was signed including the plan to encourage public consensus to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.
The advisory committee consists of stakeholders such as the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and the Financial Services Commission, experts in the medical, employment, and welfare fields, and representatives of business, labor, and patient groups. The chair of the advisory committee, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said, “Sickness benefits system will play an important role to prevent not only infectious diseases but the vicious cycle of disease and poverty. It will enable workers to maintain their work and health and contribute to achieving universal health coverage.”
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