Expanding insurance coverage to informal sector populations: Experience from Republic of Korea

Overview

Expanding  coverage of prepayment schemes to the informal sector is a  challenge encountered by many  developing countries. Because of the difficulty  of  collecting contributions  and the administrative costs this  can entail,  some countries  try  to deal with the problem by  transferring resources from  general taxation to insurance funds. However,  this is  not always  fiscally  feasible when the informal  sector constitutes a high proportion  of  the total economy, as is the case in many developing  countries.

This report is part of a series, The World Health Report 2010 Background Papers, which were written to inform the process of developing the key messages of the World Health Report 2010: Health systems financing: The path to universal coverage.