South Korea, ASEAN set to expand bilateral cooperation in health insurance, IT

The collaboration may include sending policymakers in ASEAN countries to train in Korea.

South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) started formulating ways to expand their bilateral cooperation in health insurance, digital health and medical informatization from 2024 and beyond.

Korea’s health ministry and ASEAN secretariat, Indonesia's Ministry of Health, agreed to promote a comprehensive cooperation in the healthcare field as a result of their meetings in Jakarta earlier this month.

Aside from advancing their partnership in health insurance and healthcare IT, the partners are also said to be looking for feasible ways to work with the private sector in rolling out cooperation projects.

These initiatives may include inviting policymakers of ASEAN countries on industrial tours in Korea to train, deploying local healthcare experts to the health ministries of other member nations, as well as providing support in launching pilot systems.

“The purpose of Korea-ASEAN cooperation is not only introducing Korean policy to ASEAN countries, but also developing a policy that best suits the target country, based on joint Korea- ASEAN efforts to cope with challenges facing them,” the Korean health ministry said in a statement.

The April meetings will be followed by another high-level meeting in June, where they expect to conclude talks on new cooperation projects targeted for rollout starting next year. Approvals from 10 ASEAN countries are expected to come in towards the end of the year.

Since 2021, there have been three Korea-ASEAN cooperation projects established so far with a focus on universal healthcare and health security. 

Two of which are the National Health Insurance Service, aimed at helping ASEAN create a health insurance financial risk management system, and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, which would help build a national pharmaceutical information system for the region.