January 8, 2026
SEOUL – Koreans spend nearly 250 million won ($173,000) per person on medical care over the course of their lives, with such costs becoming increasingly concentrated in old age, according to a new analysis by the National Health Insurance Service.
A report released Wednesday estimated that, as of 2023, average lifetime medical expenditure per person reached 246.56 million won.
The figure includes all health-related spending, combining payments covered by national health insurance, legally required out-of-pocket costs and non-covered services.
A noticeable shift is when medical spending peaks. In 2004, per capita health care spending reached its highest point at age 71, at about 1.72 million won a year.
By 2023, that point had moved to age 78, with annual spending surging to around 4.46 million won — a whopping 2.6-fold increase.
Researchers said the change reflects not only longer life expectancy but also a lengthening period in which older adults rely on high-cost medical services.
Women were found to spend more on health care over their lifetimes than men.
Average lifetime medical spending for women was estimated at 214.7 million won, about 32 million won more than the 182.6 million won spent by men. The gap is largely due to women living an average of 5.8 years longer than men, the report said.
The gender-specific estimates are lower than the overall average because they exclude out-of-pocket payments for non-covered services, which were indirectly estimated through separate surveys and could not be broken down by gender, an official explained.
In terms of where medical spending occurs, pharmacies and local clinics accounted for the largest shares of lifetime costs.
On average, Koreans spent almost 40 million won at pharmacies, followed closely by clinics at 39.84 million won. Tertiary hospitals and general hospitals followed, underscoring the cumulative impact of routine outpatient visits and prescription drugs over a lifetime.
Serious illness can dramatically increase lifetime costs, the report showed. The report estimated that a person diagnosed with cancer at age 30 would spend an additional 111 million won on cancer treatment alone before death.
Pancreatic cancer was the most costly, averaging about 226 million won, followed by lung cancer at roughly 114 million won and breast cancer at around 104 million won.
The findings also pointed to mounting pressure on Korea’s health care system as the population ages. In 2004, a one-year increase in life expectancy was associated with a 20 percent rise in lifetime medical spending.
By 2023, that figure had jumped to 51.8 percent, reflecting growing reliance on advanced medical technologies and long-term care services among older adults.
Researchers stressed that extending healthy life expectancy without serious illness will be critical to containing future health care costs.
They called for stronger prevention-focused policies, including better management of smoking, drinking and obesity, and earlier detection of chronic diseases, to reduce the financial burden on both households and the national health insurance system.