Medical expenses for senior citizens continue to rise at a fast pace, putting an ever growing strain on the balance sheets of the National Health Insurance Corp., the administrator of the nation’s compulsory health insurance program.

In 2011, the medical bills the state insurer paid totaled 46.2 trillion won, up 6 percent from 2010. Of the total, elderly people aged 65 or more accounted for 15.4 trillion won, up 8.9 percent from a year ago.

Last year was the only one in more than a dozen years that the increase rate of medical expenses for aged citizens stayed in single digits. It was attributed to the economic slowdown, which dampened overall household spending.

The share of elderly citizens in the NHIC’s total benefit payments has continued to rise. From 23 percent in 2004, it climbed to 26 percent in 2006, 31 percent in 2008 and further to 33.3 percent in 2011.

The increase was driven primarily by population aging, which increased the elderly population. Yet the steady rise in per-capita medical expenses of seniors also played a role.

According to the NHIC, senior citizens’ annual medical bills averaged 1.36 million won per person in 2004. The figure shot up to 2.96 million won in 2011, which was more than three times higher than the average of all age groups.

Due to the increase of senile disorders, medical bills for elderly people are bound to increase down the road, accounting for a growing share of the nation’s health care costs. The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs has forecast that seniors’ share would rise to 36 percent in 2015, 38 percent in 2020 and exceed 50 percent in 2040.

This means the balance sheets of the NHIC will be further strained in the future unless measures are taken to curb the ballooning medical expenses of elderly people.

The corporation forecasts its deficit would increase from 5.8 trillion won in 2015 to 17.3 trillion won in 2020 and to over 50 trillion won in 2030 ― even without expanding the coverage of the current insurance scheme.

To address the soaring medical expenses of seniors, it is necessary to introduce a new insurance scheme for middle and upper class people. The idea is to have them pay contributions while young to cover the medical bills in the latter part of their lives. For the poor, the government needs to set up a fund with the proceeds from state lottery sales.