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Park: Why Does the MOHW Consider Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus to be a Slight Illness?
Opinion

J Korean Diabetes 2011;12(2):65-68.

Published online: 22 January 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4093/jkd.2011.12.2.65

Why Does the MOHW Consider Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus to be a Slight Illness?

Tae Sun Park

Chonbuk National University Medical School Endocrinology and Metabolism, Jeonju, Korea

Copyright © 2011 Korean Diabetes Association

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Recently, the Ministry of Health & Welfare (MOHW) announced a policy that patients that are only slightly ill cannot go a general hospital or a tertiary facility without bearing some of the medicine expense themselves. The MOHW has established a committee to make decisions on what constitutes a slight illness, and the committee has defined 51 diseases as such. Unfortunately, all type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been included, with the exceptions of diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome. Why do MOHW administrators and committee members consider T2DM to be similar to the common cold as a slight illness? My intention is they don't know the fact that chronic disease, such as T2DM, not managed effectively without general hospitals. If they think so, they do not know the importance of the management and outcome of T2DM. I sincerely recommend that MOHW and committee members withdraw such an absurd policy and create an alternative policy.

REFERENCES

1. Lim KJ, Choi JW, Choi EJ. Analysis of the OECD Health Data 2010. Seoul: Research Institute for Healthcare Policy, Korean Medical Association;2011.
2. Research Institute for Healthcare Policy Korean Medical Association. Research Institute for Healthcare Policy KMA: Analysis of OECD health data 2010. Seoul: 2011 [cited 2011 Jun 12]. Available from:. http://www.rihp.re.kr/research/sub_06_01_read.asp?idx=409&page=1&bbs_sec=420&strSearchWord=&strSearchString=.

Fig. 1.
Diabetes incidence rate forecast, 2010, OECD.
jkd-12-65f1.tif
Fig. 2.
Diabetes mortality rate change by national comparison. Adapted from Research Institute for Healthcare Policy Korean Medical Association [2].
jkd-12-65f2.tif
Table 1.
Patient charge ratio of medical treatment and medicine expense by medical institution classification
Clinic Hospital General hospital Tertiary general hospital
Medical treatment expens patient charge ratio 30% 40% 50% 60%
Medicine expense patient charge ratio Current 30% 30% 40% 50%
Changed 30% 30% 40% 50%
Table 2.
1999-2009 Cause of death ranking by mortality rate change
Rank 1999 2008 2009
Grade Cause of death Death rate Cause of death Death rate Cause of death Number of death Portion Death rate
1 Malignant neoplasm 114.2 Malignant neoplasm 139.5 Malignant neoplasm 69,780 28.3 140.5
2 CVDa 72.9 CVDa 56.5 CVDa 25,838 10.5 52.0
3 Cardiac disease 38.9 Cardiac disease 43.4 Cardiac disease 22,347 9.0 45.0
4 Traffic accident 26.2 Suicide 26.0 Suicide 15,413 6.2 31.0
5 Liver disease 23.4 Diabetes mellitus 20.7 Diabetes mellitus 9,757 4.0 19.6
6 Diabetes mellitus 21.8 C Chronic lower respiratory diseas e 14.9 Traffic accident 7,147 2.9 14.4
7 Suicide 15.0 Traffic accident 14.7 C Chronic lower respiratory disease 6,914 2.8 13.9
8 Chronic lower respiratory diseas e 13.7 Liver disease 14.5 Liver disease 6,868 2.8 13.8
9 Hypertensive disease 7.5 Pneumonia 11.1 Pneumonia 6,324 2.6 12.7
10 Pneumonia 6.7 Hypertensive disease 9.6 Hypertensive disease 4,749 1.9 9.6

a CVD: Cardiovascular disease: Ischemic heart disease and other heart disease.

b Data: from Korea statistics.

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