Low income and risk of death up to twice as high as health insurance subscribers and workplace subscribers
Sep 06, 2024
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A research team led by Kang Hee-taek, a family medicine professor at Severance Hospital, Kim Yong-hoon, an assistant in Yonsei University's medical life system information class, Kim Ye-seul, a family medicine professor at Chungbuk National University Hospital, and Kim Jeong-yeon, a professor of artificial intelligence at University of Seoul, said on the 6th that the death rate of local health insurance subscribers is higher than that of working subscribers, and the lower the income level, the greater the risk of death from diseases such as cancer.
The research team conducted a study on 452,706 people included in the National Health Insurance Corporation's health screening cohort (2002-2019) data to understand the effects of health insurance types and premiums on mortality.
First of all, according to the type of health insurance, the mortality rate of employees (285,859) who work for general companies and local subscribers (166,847), such as self-employed people, was analyzed. As a result, the overall mortality rate of local subscribers was 1.13 times higher for men and 1.18 times higher for women than for workplace subscribers.
By cause of death, cancer (1.06 times for men and 1.12 times for women), cardiovascular disease (1.2 times for women), cerebrovascular disease (1.21 times for men and 1.21 times for women), pneumonia (1.12 times for men), suicide (1.14 times for men and 1.35 times for women), and external death (1.27 times for men and 1.21 times for women) were higher among local subscribers.
The research team then confirmed the link between income level and mortality. Based on the insurance premiums paid, workplace subscribers and local subscribers were divided into three groups: upper, middle, and lower, respectively.
At this time, regardless of the type of health insurance, the mortality rate of subscribers in the lower group was up to twice as high as those in the upper group.
Professor Kang Hee-taek confirmed that the risk of death increased due to increased disease incidence and extraterritoriality depending on the type of health insurance coverage and income level"The difference in opportunities for screening, the type of insurance coverage, and the difference in access to medical care by income level are seen as large causes, so policy support will be needed to resolve health inequality."
The findings were published in the latest issue of 'BMC Public Health'.
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