Chinese patient treated in South Korean hospital for six years dies unpaid 8.4 billion‑won bill

A Chinese man entered South Korea on a tourist visa in September 2019, worked briefly and then collapsed. After transfers between several medical facilities, he was admitted in a comatose state to a hospital in Ulsan in December 2019. Under the Emergency Medical Service Act and the Medical Service Act, the hospital could not refuse or discontinue treatment and cared for him for more than six years. During that period, unpaid medical costs accumulated to about 8.4 billion Korean won. The patient’s family in China cited financial difficulty and submitted a request to abandon treatment. The patient died in April 2024, and the hospital has no realistic means to recover the outstanding fees. The Korean National Human Rights Commission urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ulsan city authorities to establish a system that supports the medical expenses and repatriation of unclaimed foreign patients, and to create administrative manuals for such cases.