Why foreign patients pay for everything in Korea

Korea has a national health insurance system with a strong reputation, and a lot of writing about medical travel implies visitors somehow benefit from it. They do not. Understanding that one fact changes how you should read every price you are quoted.

Insurance covers residents, not visitors

National health insurance covers people enrolled in it: Korean nationals and foreign residents who meet the residency requirements and pay contributions. A tourist, a business visitor, or someone who flew in specifically for treatment is not enrolled and is billed the full amount.

Why that makes the disclosure data unusually useful to you

Korean law requires hospitals to publish what they charge for treatment insurance does not cover. For a resident, that published list describes a slice of their bill — the extras.

For you, that same list describes everything. The disclosure is not a niche reference; it is the closest thing to your actual price list that exists, which is the entire reason this site is worth building.

This build holds 86,407 disclosed prices from 3,937 institutions.

What is actually published

The disclosure covers hospital-grade institutions. Within those, the items with the widest coverage are the ones a visiting patient is most likely to encounter:

What is not published

Two gaps matter, and neither is a flaw in this site so much as a feature of the law:

• Clinic-level practices publish nothing. The disclosure applies to hospitals. Small neighbourhood clinics — including nearly all cosmetic surgery and dermatology — are outside it entirely.
• Bundled packages are not disclosed. Screening packages and “all-inclusive” treatment plans are commercial products each hospital prices itself.

The methodology page sets out exactly what is and is not covered.

Travel insurance is a separate question

Paying the full price does not mean you cannot be reimbursed. Most travel and international health policies will consider a claim for treatment abroad, but they need documentation in a language they can process.

This is the single most common avoidable mistake: patients pay, fly home, and then discover their insurer wants an English-language diagnosis and itemised receipt that the hospital will not easily produce months later and continents away. Request them at the hospital before you leave — the certificate guide explains what to ask for and what it costs.

How to check a price before you travel

1. Find the procedure on the procedures index.
2. Open the region you plan to be treated in. Regional medians differ more than most people expect.
3. Compare the hospital’s quote against the local median using the checker on that page.
4. Ask the hospital for a written, itemised quote. A published median tells you the market; only the hospital can tell you your bill.