South Korea medical expenditure hits record 225 trillion won

South Korea's national medical expenditure reached a record high of approximately 225 trillion won in 2025, accounting for 8.4% of the nation's GDP. According to reports from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service, this represents a 3.8% increase from the previous year. Personal medical expenditure, which includes costs at hospitals and pharmacies, surpassed 200 trillion won for the first time.

Data on major surgeries shows that the total number of the 35 primary surgical procedures performed under health insurance and medical benefits rose by 4.8% to 2.15 million cases. Cataract surgery was the most frequent, with 692,000 cases, followed by spinal surgeries and C-sections. The total medical cost for these surgeries reached 10.67 trillion won, a 14.7% increase year-on-year.

In a separate finding, investigations revealed that 839 medical institutions were caught for fraudulent health insurance claims over the last four years, totaling approximately 34.8 billion won. The most frequent types of fraud included inflating inpatient/outpatient days and claiming for services or medications that were never actually provided.