Ministry of Health and Welfare urges Incheon to support integrated care

South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare urged Incheon to strengthen support for the integrated care system during a field visit on Aug. 5, after sending letters to 242 local-government leaders.

Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong met Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae at sites in Incheon and Bupyeong-gu, the ministry said, to share progress over the system's first 100 days and discuss future development.

The ministry said it sent individually tailored letters to 242 newly elected heads of 15 metropolitan and 227 basic local governments, covering each area's policy conditions and examples of progress. The letters also addressed conditions such as the ageing rate, urging the new leaders to actively pursue their local integrated-care programs.

The program began on March 27 and places local governments in charge of the full process, from receiving applications through monitoring services. It supports older people, people with disabilities and others who face difficulty with daily life due to frailty, disability or illness, connecting medical, long-term care and daily support services.

In Bupyeong-gu, Jeong visited an 85-year-old long-term-care recipient's home to inspect home medical care from a doctor, nurse and social worker, LED lighting installation and in-home long-term-care services.

Incheon combines urban and island areas and faces medical-care gaps, while developing an Incheon-style system with artificial intelligence (AI) health-safety and mobile medical services for medically underserved Ganghwa and Ongjin counties.

Jeong said local leaders' leadership was crucial in tailoring services to local needs, finding people needing care and connecting support for residents to live healthily in place, regardless of region.

The government said it will expand public infrastructure and use local-government performance assessments in allocating budgets to help narrow care gaps between regions and stabilize the system. Care demand has increased as Korea enters a super-aged society and fragmented services have raised concerns about unnecessary hospital admissions and institutional placement. Health insurance spending for older people rose to 52.1 trillion won in 2024 from 37.5 trillion won in 2020, while long-term care spending climbed to 14.8 trillion won from 8.9 trillion won.