What’s New in 2014 With Medical Tourism in South Korea

Written by Chelsea Kim. Posted in Medical Tourism Korea

South Korea has an export-oriented economy, from high-tech manufactured products such as machinery, automobiles to LCD devices and of course, their kimchi which can be found in most Asian grocers around the world. There’s also K-POP, a huge part of modern Korean culture.

But let’s not overlook their medical export, after all, they have some of the best plastic surgeons in Korea; according to plastic surgery statistics, surgeons in Korea are 1.7 times more experienced than Taiwan, 6.9 times more experienced than Thailand and 17 times more experienced than that of China.

With the highest number of cosmetic procedures per 1,000 population in 2013, South Korea continues to thrive as one of the most popular destinations for beauty vacations in Asia.

As reported by BusinessKorea, “The phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by the Korean government. It is working to revamp the Korean medical system to boost the promising business sector.”

In 2014, Jung Ho-wan, the director of the Division of Global Healthcare at the Ministry of Health and Welfare has said, “To attract overseas patients, we try to improve medical laws and systems to allow domestic insurance companies to invite foreign patients, develop promotional materials to publicize the excellence of Korean medical services, invite state-supported foreign patients through inter-governmental cooperation, secure a channel for settling direct payment transactions with global insurance companies, determine international medical treatment fees, and run reporting centers for illegal brokers. “

There have been cases of death in Korean plastic surgery, where illegal medical brokers were involved.

Fortunately, South Korea is looking to continually improve their medical services. As Jung-Ho-wan has said, “In one word, we are engaged in enhancing market transparency and reliability.”