Health insurance payment arrears exceed 380 bln won in H1

SEOUL, Aug. 21 (Yonhap) -- Overdue health insurance premiums for people in the entertainment industry, professional athletes and self-employed entrepreneurs reached 381.5 billion won (US$351.7 million) in the first half of the year, a lawmaker said Sunday.
Rep. Jung Ha-gyun said that based on data provided by the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC), there were 331 entertainers, 387 athletes and 79,729 small business owners that failed to pay their dues on time.
The lawmaker said that there were also 270 people engaged in so-called professionals occupations who were consistently late in paying their health insurance premiums.
Payment delinquency puts burdens on the country's health insurance system and is not fair since premiums for salaried workers are deducted automatically from their monthly paychecks.
Those that were found to be late were on a list of people that the NHIC has been keeping tabs on for past delinquencies.
Arrears are tallied if a person's insurance payment is more than five months late and if taxable profit exceeds 1.5 million won.
"Of the total premiums levied on people on the watch list as of late June, only 5.9 percent or 22.4 billion won was collected," the lawmaker from the splinter opposition said.
He said that in order to reduce arrearages, the government needs to establish a more binding way to push people to pay their dues on time.