Public hospitals are mostly in chronic deficit. Each year, they look to the government for subsidies to cover part of their losses. Despite their poor financial state, these hospitals, however, have provided very generous benefits to their employees.

According to news reports, the 11 general hospitals affiliated with national universities and the 34 local hospitals operated by provincial governments have been offering big discounts on the medical bills of their employees and their family members. Some even extended the benefits to retired employees and their spouses.

The national university-operated hospitals have been found to have doled out a total of 78 billion won in discounts during the past three years, while the provincial public hospitals offered discounts worth 10.3 billion won.

During the same period, the central government provided 93.8 billion won in subsidies to these hospitals. The figures suggest that more than 90 percent of the state subsidies were used by the hospitals to lower the medical bills of their employees. This is nothing short of unwarranted appropriation of taxpayers’ money.

Seoul National University Hospital topped the list of university hospitals by offering 22 billion won in discounts to their employees, followed by Pusan National University Hospital at 13.6 billion won and Chonnam National University Hospital at 10.7 billion won.

These hospitals set higher discount rates for their employees than those for students of their universities.

Of the 11 university-run public hospitals, 10 incurred losses last year, with the combined deficit amounting to about 120 billion won.

The situation is not much different for the 34 local public hospitals. Last year alone, they suffered losses totaling 86.3 billion won. But under collective bargaining contracts with their unions, these hospitals provided special discounts to the union members and their family members.

Public hospitals can provide discounts on medical bills of their employees as part of their welfare packages. But this should be done within acceptable bounds. If they overstep the bounds, it becomes an unjustifiable theft of public money.

Last December, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Committee advised these public hospitals to stop offering excessive discounts to their employees to prevent budget waste. But they turned a deaf ear to this advice.

The central government needs to pressure these hospitals to change their practices. If this does not work, it will have to promote legislation to prevent taxpayers’ money from being used to give excessive benefits to hospital employees.