Health Insurance cards misused by some foreigners

The national's health insurance agency said it has found that some immigrant workers and other foreign nationals use their friends or other people's health insurance cards to benefit from the state-run medical scheme without subscribing to it.
The National Health Insurance Corp.(NHIC) has recently launched a large-scale inspection of hospitals in major districts to trackdown foreign national who are suspected of having used other people's insurance cards.
According to the insurance agency, a foreigner was caught in May for using an insurance policy of his sister for treatment costing a total of 2.8 million won ($1,820) in April, another foreign national was caught using the policy of chinese friend.
Immigrant students and workers are the majority of violators a NHIC spokesman told the Korea Times Friday.
Data on the violators were not immediately available.

The state health insurance provider is worrying about the increasing use of its services by unregistered foreign nationals.
It said a crackdown on such illegal beneficiary has been elusive due to legal loopholes.
Under the current law, those who use the cards are not punishable - only the policyholders are liable for any unauthorized benefits. The law which doesn't mandate hospitals to verify whether a foreigner patient is actually the insurance holder, is making the situation worse. officials said.
Under the current system, if the NHIC detects abuses, it just ends up imposing the costs on policy holder without punishing the actual patient.
experts said it's too lenient to effectively curb the crime calling an ammendment to impose tougher punishment on violators. They also said the insurance policy cards without a subscribers photo are one of the reasons behind the increasing abuse. "We are considering changing to plastic cards that contain information on the subscribers, including a photo" The sokesman said.
Foreigners who have lived here for more than three months are elligible to subscribe to health insurance. Monthly premium range from 36,000 to 71,000 won depending on their job in korea.The subscription is all mandatory for all korean citizen.
Of 1.05 million foreigners in korea, including some 180,00 unregistered , about 41 percent or 426,000 are covered by the insurance. The government said.
" mdaming mga kapwa pinoy gumagawa nito" so warning po pra sa ssunod,wag ng ulitin at kau din ang mppahamak.lalo na dun sa mga tnt"

source:: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/117_72138.html