{"id":1496,"date":"2026-06-19T16:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:39:38","slug":"is-hair-loss-a-survival-issue-party-leader-hits-insurance-coverage-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1496","title":{"rendered":"Is hair loss a survival issue? Party leader hits insurance coverage proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok speaks during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on June 15. Yonhap <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Minor conservative Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok criticized the government\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, Lee pushed back against the government\u2019s description of access to hair-loss medication as \u201ca matter of survival,\u201d stating that the drugs are neither difficult to obtain nor as costly as the government has suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the conservative party leader wrote.<\/p>\n

He went on to argue that expanding coverage to include hair-loss medication would undermine the basic principles governing the national health insurance system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019s livelihood collapses under the cost of treating a serious disease,\u201d he went on. \u201cIt should not be treated as if a gift, handed out by politicians with great fanfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reform Party leader also brought up the increasingly precarious financial condition of the national health insurance system.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ca matter of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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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\u2019s 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….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}