The health insurance payments made by all foreign subscribers exceeded the cost of the medical services they actually received, data showed Wednesday. In 2022, the National Health Insurance Service reported a surplus of 556 billion won ($426 million) in operating the health insurance program for foreign subscribers -- which includes foreign national residents, ethnic Korean residents with foreign citizenship and Korean nationals living abroad. Foreign subscribers paid a total of 1.789 trillion won in mandatory health insurance premiums, while the NHIS paid 1.233 trillion won to cover the medical services they received.

When broken down by country, among the 10 major nationalities, only Chinese national subscribers received more benefits than the total premiums they paid, resulting in a deficit of 22.9 billion won for the NHIS in operating the program for Chinese subscribers in 2022. However, the size of the deficit for Chinese subscribers has been decreasing. In 2018, the deficit amounted to 150.9 billion won, but it fell to 22.9 billion won last year.

All foreign nationals residing in Korea for more than six months are required to enroll in the National Health Insurance program and pay monthly premiums based on their income and assets. Household members have the option to enroll as a unit. Foreign dependents -- spouses, children and immediate family members -- of foreign national residents are also covered while living in Korea. The NHIS and Ministry of Health and Welfare have been dealing with the erroneous belief that foreign subscribers are "free riders," based on a few who have received more benefits than they paid into the system, but overall, foreign subscribers have actually endured greater losses, and instead contributed to strengthening the NHIS' financial health as a whole.