Korea’s efforts to promote the excellence of its health insurance system among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have born some fruits.

HIRA’s headquarters in Wonju, Gangwon Province

For example, the Myanmar government is paying close attention to Korea's health insurance system, sending a delegation to international symposiums held by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), the state-run agency said Tuesday.

Currently, Myanmar’s Minister of Health and Sports Myint Htwe is visiting Korea to this end. Minister Htwe visited HIRA’s Seoul office last Friday and discussed a practical cooperation project between the two governments, including sending a HIRA official to the medical expenses review workshop to be held in Myanmar this year.

Myanmar is not the only Southeast Asian country to benchmark HIRA.

HIRA is a key business partner for the Health Equity and Quality Improvement Program (H-EQIP) in Cambodia, together with the World Bank, Australia, and Germany.

Through this program, Cambodia has established the Payment Certification Agency (PCA), a medical screening organization set up in 2017 by benchmarking the Korean agency, and is going all out to maximize the PCA’s capacity this year.

HIRA said it also plans to provide consultation on improving healthcare services to other ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Philippines, and India.

“ASEAN countries are learning from HIRA’s experiences and know-how on medical examination and evaluation,” said Ryu Jong-su, HIRA’s head of international coordination. “The agency expects that the excellence of the Korean health insurance system will spread to the ASEAN region and will have a positive effect on the overseas expansion of the domestic healthcare industry.”

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