경제자유구역에서의 외국의료기관의 설립ㆍ운영에 관한 법적 고찰

The Legal Study on the Establishment and Management of Foreign Hospital in Free Economic Zones

In Korea, it is prohibited to establish profit-making corporation of hospital within Medical Law. All Medical corporations are thus not-for-profit, meaning that although entities may earn substantial profits or surpluses, those funds must be devoted to the entities charitable, religious or public purposes. Medical industrialization theory tries to promote the capital s investment in medical service segment by presenting the permit for profit-making hospital and the promotion of private medical insurance. Medical market open is a reality we can t avoid by WTO, DDA(Doha Development Agenda). Changes in medical industry and open market analyzing the flow of medical policy and various circumstances. The medical hub strategy is a solution for the development of medical industry. Attracting foreign hospitals and foreign patients will open job opportunities and raise profit. Up until now, discussions regarding for-profit medical corporations have been that of arguing for or against the introduction, each side providing advantages and disadvantages that may occur as the outcome. Some of the advantages that have been mentioned include; through allowing investments from various fields of area other than that of medical fields, higher amounts of investments would occur; such investments would lead to greater competition among health care entities, enhancing the quality of medicine overall; and inefficiency due to management by health care professionals would be replaced by more maket-oriented officers bringing better management results. Disadvantages include: infusion of large investments would breakdown the health care system through leading small to medium size hospitals bankrupt. Though the establishment and management of foreign hospital in Free Economic Zones is permitted by law, it has several serious problems. One of the important problems is the possibility of permission for-profit corporation to domestic hospitals. Another problem is all health care institutions must enroll in National Health Insurance system as provider.