Manual therapy, injections make up 22% of private health insurance payouts, exceeding those for cancer, stroke

In the past year, private health insurance paid out approximately 3.7 trillion won for non-severe treatments, including manual therapy and non-insured injections. This figure represents 21.9% of total insurance payouts, surpassing the amount paid for severe illnesses like cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's '2025 Private Health Insurance Business Performance' report released on June 3, the number of private health insurance policies increased by 260,000 to 36.22 million by the end of last year. While non-life insurance policies grew by 300,000 to 30.28 million, life insurance policies decreased by 40,000 to 5.94 million. The second generation of private health insurance policies constituted the largest portion at 41.2%, followed by the third generation (21.6%), fourth generation (17.7%), and first generation (17.1%). Policies are generally structured with higher deductibles and lower premiums for later generations.

Insurance premium revenue rose by 10.0% to 18 trillion won last year. However, insurance payouts increased by 11.4% to 17 trillion won, exceeding the growth rate of premium revenue. When factoring in costs like claims investigation and business expenses, private health insurance recorded a deficit of 1.87 trillion won last year. The loss ratio, which indicates the level of insurance payouts relative to premium revenue, also rose by 1.7 percentage points to 101.0% compared to the previous year.

Payouts for musculoskeletal conditions, including manual therapy, amounted to 2.7 trillion won, while payouts for non-insured injections, such as nutritional supplements, reached 1 trillion won. Combined, these non-severe treatments account for 21.9% of all payouts, exceeding the 2.6 trillion won paid for severe conditions like cancer, stroke, and heart disease. This concentration of payouts on non-severe, non-insured treatments is driving up the loss ratio for private health insurance and consequently pressuring premium increases for all policyholders.

However, the outlook suggests a potential slowdown in the growth of these payouts. The fifth generation of private health insurance, which reduces coverage for non-severe non-insured treatments, was launched last month. Additionally, efforts are underway to include manual therapy under the national health insurance coverage. The Financial Supervisory Service stated, "We will strive to prevent insurance money leakage due to excessive non-insured medical treatments and reduce the burden of insurance premiums through the successful establishment of the fifth generation of private health insurance."