Health ministry bills shift welfare from application to automatic payment

The health ministry said Thursday that parliament passed 14 bills under its remit, including six that overhaul the application-based welfare system.

The six laws scrap application procedures for universal benefits such as the child allowance, parental benefits and the first-meeting voucher, so payments begin in the month a child is born. Basic and disability pensions will be paid after eligibility is verified using government-held data, without a separate application. The revision also lets officials apply for benefits on behalf of people in crisis, including those who have attempted suicide, without the person's consent.

"The revision of the six application-system laws is significant in that it lays the institutional groundwork for improving the application principle in welfare benefits for the first time," Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong said. "We will continue to improve the application system to build a tight welfare safety net."

The six laws take effect three months after promulgation, following cabinet approval. The ministry said it will finish revising subordinate regulations and upgrading the social security information system within that period, and created a legal basis for exempting from liability and rewarding officials who actively file applications on behalf of those in need.

A revised National Pension Act expands pension credits. The period credited for military service now covers the entire term of service, and the credit for a second child rises to 15 months.

Separately in the same package, a revised Emergency Medical Service Act requires provincial governors to establish regional patient-transfer systems covering the selection of hospitals by severity, confirmation of whether facilities can accept patients, and the designation of priority hospitals when transfer of a critically ill patient is delayed. It creates a legal basis for central and regional emergency medical situation rooms to handle the selection of transfer institutions for critically ill patients, patient transfers and the provision of transfer information, and for emergency medical information networks to be operated so that situation rooms and the 119 rescue situation center can check hospital capacity and advance notices of refusal in real time.

Criminal penalties for emergency medical workers were eased. Provisions reducing punishment for workers when a patient dies or is injured during emergency care become mandatory rather than discretionary, and the law adds a mandatory exemption from criminal punishment for workers at hospitals designated as priority receivers when a transfer is delayed.

A revised Suicide Prevention Act allows pseudonymized criminal justice and social security information to be combined and analyzed so that suicide prevention policy rests on evidence. Emergency medical institutions must provide suicide prevention centers with information on people who attempted or died by suicide that is collected through the emergency medical information network, as prescribed by presidential decree. The law adds a basis for requesting psychological autopsy data to analyze why young people take their own lives, and directs the government and local authorities to improve the treatment of suicide prevention workers.

People who try to rescue someone attempting suicide will be relieved of civil and criminal liability for property damage, death or injury in the absence of intent or gross negligence. The ministry said it will complete a sixth basic suicide prevention plan from measures announced by government departments between June and September.