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American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
3135.0: Monday, December 12, 2005 - 11:00 AM

Abstract #114422

Korean economic crisis and coping strategies in the health sector: Prowelfarism or neoliberalism?

Chang-yup Kim, MD, PhD, MPH, School of Public health, Seoul National University, 28 Yongun-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul, 110-799, South Korea, 82-2-740-8876, cykim@snu.ac.kr

There has been considerable debate on the welfare policies of the Kim Dae-jung government, South Korea, since the economic crisis of late 1990s, but it is unquestionable that its health and health care policies have faithfully followed the doctrine of neoliberalism. Public health measures and the performance of the public sector weakened to a minimal role, and the private health sector has further strengthened its dominance. Contraction of health budget and deregulation of the occupational safety measures reveals negative attitude of the government towards social protection. In addition, there had been no evidence of strengthening safety net, expansion of social security entitlement or benefit, and associated legislative reform in health field, which supposed to be elements of prowelfare policies. As a result, health and health care policies of this period are characterized by an overwhelming neoliberal trend rather than prowelfaristic one. Neoliberalism has been an “orthodox” ideology dominating Korean society for more than a decade. The recent Korean economic crisis, often regarded as a consequence of its “nonglobalized” economy, has allowed neoliberalism to reach every area of society. However, Korean labor and civil movements have not completely succumbed to this wave, claiming that privatization of health sectors should not be a new policy. Workers' health, threatened by the government's neoliberal policies, also has been regarded as a main struggle issue of the national trade unions and associated activist groups, and their countermeasures have been partly successful in preventing further regression of safety and health protection.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Health Reform, Politics

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Globalization, Health, and Health Care

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA