Health insurance payments go up for top 1%

The government has raised the maximum health insurance payment paid by those of the top 1 percent in income.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Sunday, the maximum monthly health insurance payment limit has been raised 86,190 won ($76) from the previous 3,096,570 won to 3,182,760 won.

This higher maximum payment will be applied on the first day of the new year.

The people that are subjected to the higher insurance payment are those whose monthly wage is 78.1 million won or more, which translates to more than 937.2 million won a year. Additionally those that makes more than 34 million won a year from income other than their paychecks will be also subjected to this higher health insurance payment. This includes investment returns as well as rent payments paid by tenants.

The people that receive that much of monthly or annual wages amounts to 134,000.

For the rest, next year’s health insurance rate will be raised from 6.24 percent to 6.46 percent, which means everyone employed will have to pay an additional 3,746 won a month.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]