[사진출처 = 연합뉴스]“Elderly parents who look at age 80 have built a house and a car all their lives, but only with a sharp increase in publicly announced prices, they were converted into local subscribers and had to pay more than 2.6 million won in health insurance premiums per year. Even without it.”
This is an appeal that was posted on the bulletin board of the Blue House National Petition.
One of the burdensome areas is not only the holding tax but also the insurance fee due to the increase in the official land price. In particular, in the case of retirees, the pain is inevitably aggravated. In the meantime, the official price of a single house was relatively inexpensive, so it was possible to list the name on the children’s health insurance.
Recently, the National Health Insurance Corporation announced that changes in income last year and this year’s assets will be reflected in the health insurance premium for local subscribers and will be charged from November.
A new standard for recalculating insurance premiums by reflecting the income growth rate of last year (interest, dividend, business, earned income, housing rental income, etc.) It is valid for one year from month to month.
However, the Corporation expanded the property deduction applied when setting health insurance premiums in order to prevent the burden of local subscribers from increasing significantly due to the increase in the published price this year. So far, the amount of property deduction has been between 5 million and 12 million won, but from this month onwards, after deducting an additional 5 million won, insurance premiums are charged.
According to the Health Insurance Corporation, when the new levy standard is applied, 2.65 million households (33.6%) out of 7.89 million households with regional subscribers will see an increase in insurance premiums, and 2.63 million households (33.3%) will experience a decrease in insurance premiums. For the other 2.61 million households (33.1%), there is no change in insurance premiums.
How to avoid a health insurance bomb
Insurance premiums increase every year, but there are ways to reduce them depending on the situation.
First, let’s familiarize ourselves with the ‘Certificate of Termination’. Occasionally, one-time or short-term irregular income is recognized as continuous income and the health insurance premium suddenly jumps.
A termination certificate is a document proving that the business relationship with the company that paid the salary has been terminated. If you submit a termination certificate to the National Health Insurance Corporation, you can get a refund for overpaid health insurance and long-term care fees.
The form of the termination certificate can be easily downloaded from the Internet. The important thing is that you must obtain the seal of the company you made the transaction with and submit it to the Insurance Corporation. You can contact the place of business you have done business with and request the issuance of a termination certificate stamped with your seal.
In addition, after retirement, the employer loses the qualifications of an employee and is converted to a local insured, who used to pay half and half of insurance premiums by individuals and companies.
The insurance premium rate for workplace insurers jumped 2.89 percentage points from 6.67% last year to 6.86% this year, and the amount of points for local insurers rose from 195.8 won last year to 201.5 won this year.
Many retirees complain about the increase in health insurance premiums in a situation where their income after retirement is not as good as before because of the annual increase in health insurance premiums. Moreover, if you own property, such as a house or vehicle, there is a high possibility that local insurers will pay more premiums due to the difference in calculation method and payment ratio.
If the increased health insurance premiums become a burden after being converted to a local subscriber, you can apply for the ‘voluntary continuous subscription system’.
The voluntary continuous health insurance subscription system can only be applied to those who have maintained the status of employment for at least one year within the 18 months prior to retirement. You can apply up to two months before the first local insurance premium payment deadline after retirement. Those who wish to apply may visit a branch of the National Health Insurance Corporation or apply by mail, phone, or fax.
However, there are a few things to check before applying for the voluntary continuation subscription system. When you switch to a local insured after retirement, your health insurance premium is calculated in conjunction with your own property level.
Local insurers usually pay more for insurance premiums than employers, but in some cases, insurance premiums are lower than at the time of employment due to the surprisingly small amount of assets they own. Therefore, rather than using the unconditional voluntary continuous subscription system, it is wise to check through the National Health Insurance Corporation how much insurance premium you have to pay as a local subscriber.
An official from the financial sector said, “There are many cases of ignorance of the voluntary continuous subscription system, and the deadline for application is short, which is about two months, so it is often missed.”
Another way is to ‘register as a dependent’ if you have a child enrolled in the workplace.
The health insurance premium is a structure in which a household is bundled and the representative of that household pays the insurance premium. Immediate parents or spouses, and immediate sibling or children under the age of 30 or over 65 can register as dependents of the employee insured. When registering as a dependent, you can enjoy health insurance benefits without having to pay a separate health insurance premium regardless of the household head’s health insurance premium increase.
In addition, if you do not need a large car, you can reduce the insurance premium charged by the car by changing it to a vehicle of less than 40 million won or less than 1,600cc or using a lease.
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