User:Fatimamac12/Drug policy of South Korea

Prescription Drug Use

As the population in South Korea continues to grow, the demand for higher quality healthcare services has increasingly followed as well. Surprisingly pharmaceutical expenditures have placed a large financial burden on civilians and healthcare insurers who are attempting to meet the exponentially rising costs of the pharmaceutical market. Between 2002 and 2013, the costs of pharmaceutical products rose from “10.2% annually to 28.3%”. These price increases were caused by the lack of separation between prescribing and dispensing of drugs in the health care system. Pharmacists had the power to both prescribe and dispense drugs to the public thus “creating financial incentives”  for them to sell products/drugs that were marked at “higher margins” despite other medicine alternatives existing. Physicians soon realized the profit that they could make from pharmaceuticals and thus began overprescribing drugs to patients rather than offering medical services to increase their income. However it's important to note that this isn’t just an issue specific to South Korea but can be observed in even highly developed countries like America. America is currently battling against high pharmaceutical costs that primarily are effecting insulin costs. The cost for medicine in America is so extremely overpriced that “patients literally need to decide if they will pay for their insulin or for their housing and food.”. In efforts to alleviate South Koreans from these financial costs and contain the increasing prices of pharmaceuticals the government implemented the “Drug Expenditure Rationalization Plan”. In addition to lowering costs the policy also put strict restrictions on the drugs that their healthcare insurance would cover in efforts to limit overconsumption/prescription of drugs. However this policy left adverse affects on patients with chronic illness and low income status because they could not meet the new out of pocket costs that were placed on medications that didn’t qualify under the country’s covered drug list. A study conducted by Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health concluded income level and prescription drug use were associated to one another. Based on the South Korea population, the more wealthier an individual is the more likely they are to consume prescription drugs despite the high number of ill cases in low-income groups.

Koreans abroad using drugs in a country where it is legal

Despite many countries in the globe loosening their drug restrictions South Korea has remained very strict about their citizen’s drug use. These restrictions have incentivized Koreans to seek illegal methods to obtain drugs. Many citizens especially students studying abroad use this opportunity to explore drugs during their time in their new host country since access to them is a lot more accessible. People become so dependent on these drugs that when they return home they continue to seek them thus giving way for the illegal drug market to grow in South Korea. Even marijuana in form of e-cigrattes or edibles, which is legal in many parts of the world, is deemed punishable by the Korean government and if caught a person can be sentenced to prison and fines. However drug and substance use in South Korea has moved beyond recreation and has become a major problem of abuse. Even Lee Tae-kyung, a physician at the Department of Mental Hygiene in Seoul, described it as, “...drug abuse [that] should be considered a public health issue”, implying that substance abuse in Korea has become an epidemic that requires more than legal enforcement of drug use and misconduct. The problem impeding individuals from seeking medical or psychiatric help for substance abuse is that they are afraid to come forward about it. Current drug laws and policies restricting drug use and their punitive punishments instill fear in their citizens that even those suffering from drug abuse refuse to seek help for their addiction thus leaving thousands to suffer.

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Prescription Drug Use

As the population in South Korea continues to grow, the demand for higher quality healthcare services has increasingly followed as well. Surprisingly pharmaceutical expenditures have placed a large financial burden on civilians and healthcare insurers who are attempting to meet the exponentially rising costs of the pharmaceutical market. Between 2002 and 2013, the costs of pharmaceutical products rose from “10.2% annually to 28.3%”. These price increases were caused by the lack of separation between prescribing and dispensing of drugs in the health care system. Pharmacists had the power to both prescribe and dispense drugs to the public thus “creating financial incentives”  for them to sell products/drugs that were marked at “higher margins” despite other medicine alternatives existing. Physicians soon realized the profit that they could make from pharmaceuticals and thus began overprescribing drugs to patients rather than offering medical services to increase their income. However it's important to note that this isn’t just an issue specific to South Korea but can be observed in even highly developed countries like America. America is currently battling against high pharmaceutical costs that primarily are effecting insulin costs. The cost for medicine in America is so extremely overpriced that “patients literally need to decide if they will pay for their insulin or for their housing and food.”. In efforts to alleviate South Koreans from these financial costs and contain the increasing prices of pharmaceuticals the government implemented the “Drug Expenditure Rationalization Plan”. In addition to lowering costs the policy also put strict restrictions on the drugs that their healthcare insurance would cover in efforts to limit overconsumption/prescription of drugs. However this policy left adverse affects on patients with chronic illness and low income status because they could not meet the new out of pocket costs that were placed on medications that didn’t qualify under the country’s covered drug list. A study conducted by Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health concluded income level and prescription drug use were associated to one another. Based on the South Korea population, the more wealthier an individual is the more likely they are to consume prescription drugs despite the high number of ill cases in low-income groups.

Koreans abroad using drugs in a country where it is legal

Despite many countries in the globe loosening their drug restrictions South Korea has remained very strict about their citizen’s drug use. These restrictions have incentivized Koreans to seek illegal methods to obtain drugs. Many citizens especially students studying abroad use this opportunity to explore drugs during their time in their new host country since access to them is a lot more accessible. People become so dependent on these drugs that when they return home they continue to seek them thus giving way for the illegal drug market to grow in South Korea. Even marijuana in form of e-cigrattes or edibles, which is legal in many parts of the world, is deemed punishable by the Korean government and if caught a person can be sentenced to prison and fines. However drug and substance use in South Korea has moved beyond recreation and has become a major problem of abuse. Even Lee Tae-kyung, a physician at the Department of Mental Hygiene in Seoul, described it as, “...drug abuse [that] should be considered a public health issue”, implying that substance abuse in Korea has become an epidemic that requires more than legal enforcement of drug use and misconduct. The problem impeding individuals from seeking medical or psychiatric help for substance abuse is that they are afraid to come forward about it. Current drug laws and policies restricting drug use and their punitive punishments instill fear in their citizens that even those suffering from drug abuse refuse to seek help for their addiction thus leaving thousands to suffer.