Some North Korean hospitals have prices for treatment and medicine in a break in previous practice which suggests that the authorities abandon the objective of providing free health care, Radio free asia was told Radio Free Asia.
The public health law of the Communist country stipulates that the State provides comprehensive and complete free care. Although reality has been different for a long time, patients paying medication and other expenses in their pocket, prices are now openly displayed, according to two sources from two different provinces.
“Recently, hospitals in the province have changed their panels and started to display medical costs inside buildings,” said the first source of North Hamgyong province that requested anonymity for security reasons. “As soon as you enter the hospital, the costs are displayed in the right place in the reception area.”
The source said that hospitals began to publish treatment fees in February and that many residents were “quite shocked”. In the past, residents have been used at least to obtain consultations for free, even if they had to pay medication.
The source of the northern province of Hamgyong, which has been in the northeast of the country, said that since the fall of 2024, hospitals have also started to change their names of “popular hospitals” with names according to the district or the city, and have also started to display treatment costs.
The costs are listed in the reception of the hospital, such as 5,000 won (50 cents) for registration, 5,000 wons for consultation, 20,000 wons ($ 2) for an x -ray and 50,000 won ($ 5) for medical certificates, according to a second source in the northern province of Pyongan, which is in the west of the country. The prices of various drugs, including pain relievers and antibiotics, ranging from 200 won (2 cents) for an aspirin tablet, to 8,000 won (80 cents) for penicillin.
In theory, North Korea has universal health coverage, but its ability to provide it has been paralyzed for decades by chronic shortages, which grew up after the fall of the former Soviet Union and the subsidies it offered, then famine in the late 1990s. Anecdotal evidence indicates a general lack of basic equipment such as electricity in clinics and hospitals.
Independent research on the North Korean health care system, based on the responses of North Koreans who fled to South Korea and published in 2020, in fact suggests that spending on health services have been widespread for years, even for medical consultations. More than 80% of the 383 research respondents said they had paid medication and medical supplies.
Published by Yang Seong-Won and Mat Pennington.