hankyoreh

South Korea ranks at the bottom of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members in national medicare expenditures to gross domestic product (GDP), a report said Monday.

The Health Data 2006 report, compiled by the state-run National Health Insurance Corp. and based on OECD figures, said South Korea spent 5.6 percent of its GDP on medicare, lower than that of such countries as Poland and Mexico, which each allotted 6.5 percent to public medical expenditures.

Ireland and the Czech Republic allocated 7.1 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively, of their GDP to state-managed medicare. The OECD average was 8.9 percent, the health corporation said.

In contrast, the United States ranked first in money spent on medicare, followed by European welfare economies such as Switzerland, France and Greece, along with Iceland. Washington allocated 15.3 percent of GDP to its national health plan, while France spends 10.5 percent.

The report also said the level of the state's contribution to medicare in South Korea reached 51.4 percent, the third-smallest amount following the U.S. with 44.7 percent and Mexico with 46.4 percent.

The state-run agency said the low level reflects the high percentage of money paid by Korean nationals to receive medical care and low levels of state support.

In Britain, Sweden, Norway and Luxemburg, the average level paid by the state exceeds 80 percent. The the data showed the percentage of spending on drugs vis-a-vis total medicare expenditures reached 27.4 percent for South Korea, the second-highest amount after Poland and far higher than the OECD average of 16.7 percent.

Seoul, Aug. 14 (Yonhap News)