Healthcare

Health Insurance Enrollment

Depending on your employment and family situation, you enroll as a workplace subscriber, a regional subscriber, or a dependent.

• Workplace subscriber — when hired at a covered workplace, the employer files the enrollment
• Regional subscriber — long-term foreign residents who are not workplace subscribers or dependents
• Students (D-2, D-4) are enrolled automatically based on their records and get a 50% premium reduction if eligible

Hospital Visit Procedure

For mild symptoms, use outpatient care at a nearby clinic or hospital.

1. Find a hospital and department that fit your symptoms, and ask about hours and appointments.
2. Give your alien registration card and health-insurance information at the reception desk.
3. After care and tests, pay the fee; if you have a prescription, buy the medicine at a pharmacy.

Using the Emergency Room

Emergency rooms decide the order of care by severity, not by arrival order.

• Give your ID at reception and describe the patient’s condition
• Depending on severity, tests, first aid, admission, or transfer follow
• Check hospitals and pharmacies open at night on the E-Gen portal (www.e-gen.or.kr)

How to Call 119

Call 119 immediately for reduced consciousness, difficulty breathing, severe chest pain, bleeding or burns, falls, or traffic accidents.

1. State the exact location or building name where the patient is.
2. Describe the symptoms, whether the patient is conscious and breathing, and how many are injured.
3. Give your name and phone number and the interpreting language you need.
4. Follow the operator’s instructions to give first aid while waiting for the ambulance.

Ambulance use is free and available equally regardless of nationality.

Multilingual Care & Interpreting

Available interpreting languages and hours differ by hospital, so check before your visit.

• Danuri Call Center 1577-1366 — three-way phone interpreting with hospitals and emergency services
• NHIS foreign-language help 033-811-2000 — English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Uzbek
• S-Pohang Hospital International Clinic — dedicated coordinator for foreigners and English medical certificates

Finding Hospitals in Pohang

Main phone and emergency-room numbers for major emergency hospitals in Pohang.

• Pohang St. Mary’s Hospital 054-272-0151 / ER 054-450-9997
• Pohang Semyeong Christian Hospital 054-275-0005 / ER 054-289-1711
• Gyeongbuk Pohang Medical Center 054-247-0551 / ER 054-245-0129
• S-Pohang Hospital 054-289-9000 / ER 054-289-9119
• Good Sunlin Hospital 054-245-5000 / ER 054-245-5200

Medical Support for Foreign Workers

A program for those who cannot get help from other systems such as health insurance or medical benefits.

• Eligible — foreign workers and their spouses, children under 18, marriage migrants before naturalization, asylum applicants, and others
• Support focuses on hospitalization and surgery; general outpatient care is excluded in principle
• In Pohang, first ask Pohang Medical Center whether support is available

Emergency Medical Cost Advance

If you cannot pay emergency fees right away, the government pays the hospital first and you repay it later.

1. Ask the hospital’s administration office whether the advance-payment program applies.
2. Fill out the application form provided at the hospital.
3. After review, the government pays the cost to the hospital.
4. Later, repay the advanced amount as instructed.

This is not free aid — you must repay it later.

Support for Work-Injury Treatment

For work accidents or work-related illness, you can claim treatment costs and leave benefits through industrial-accident insurance.

• You can apply directly to the Workers’ Compensation Service even without the employer’s consent
• When registering at the hospital, be sure to say “I was injured at work.”
• Keep photos of the accident scene, witness information, and medical records