🇰🇷 South Korea · Healthcare
How the South Korea healthcare system works — public vs private care, eligibility, and costs for residents and visitors.
South Korea has a single-payer universal system, National Health Insurance (NHIS), which is mandatory. Foreign residents who stay more than six months are generally required to enrol (some, such as students and certain workers, from arrival), with income-based premiums. The NHIS covers a large share of medical costs; patients pay the remainder.
- NHIS is mandatory; foreign residents must generally enrol after six months (some from arrival).
- Premiums are income-based (or assessed for those without employment income).
- The scheme covers a large share of medical costs; patients pay the remainder.
- Manage enrolment and contributions via the NHIS — keep payments current to retain coverage.
Official authorities
- National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)
Official health-insurance authority (guidance for foreigners).
Official-information aggregation, not legal advice. Always verify on the authority's own site.
Government portals
- Government of Korea — Korea's integrated government portal — policy, administrative services, e-government
- Korea Immigration Service (HiKorea) — Visas, residence status changes, work permits, and alien registration in Korea
- National Tax Service (NTS) — Korean income tax, corporate tax, VAT filing; annual comprehensive tax return for foreigners (May); foreign taxpayer incentive lookup