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Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok speaks during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on June 15. Yonhap
Minor conservative Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok criticized the government’s plan to include hair-loss medication in the national health insurance coverage, arguing that limited resources should instead be prioritized for patients with severe and rare diseases.
In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, Lee pushed back against the government’s description of access to hair-loss medication as “a matter of survival,” stating that the drugs are neither difficult to obtain nor as costly as the government has suggested.
“The Lee Jae Myung administration has described access to hair-loss medication as a matter of survival, but with patents on finasteride-based treatments having expired, a flood of generic versions has brought the monthly cost down to between 10,000 won ($6.60) and 30,000 won,” the conservative party leader wrote.
He went on to argue that expanding coverage to include hair-loss medication would undermine the basic principles governing the national health insurance system.
“The foremost purpose of the national health insurance system is to uphold the social promise that people should share the burden of life-threatening and financially ruinous illnesses, so that no family’s livelihood collapses under the cost of treating a serious disease,” he went on. “It should not be treated as if a gift, handed out by politicians with great fanfare.”
The Reform Party leader also brought up the increasingly precarious financial condition of the national health insurance system.
“Starting in 2026, the national health insurance system is projected to swing to a deficit of more than 4 trillion won. The hundreds of billions of won spent on hair-loss medication would, in effect, be taken from funds that could otherwise go to people suffering from rare and severe diseases,” he said.
“I understand the temptation to spread money thinly among a larger number of people to win more votes. But the principles of the national health insurance system must not be undermined for electoral gain.”
The conservative party leader’s criticism came after the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced at a press briefing last Thursday that the government would seek to include hair-loss medication in national health insurance coverage. Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong said the government plans to pursue the change in the second half of this year.
The announcement came about six months after the president instructed the ministry in late December to review the policy, saying hair loss is increasingly regarded as “a matter of survival.”
Currently, national health insurance coverage for hair loss is limited to treatments for conditions such as alopecia areata caused by medical factors. Under the proposed plan, however, hair-loss medication that is currently not covered would be added to the benefits package for people aged 20 to 34.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times
