Last year, the expense for prescription drugs in the health insurance finance reached approximately 27 trillion won.
According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) on the 29th, the total amount claimed for prescription drugs under health insurance last year was 26 trillion 989.7 billion won, an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year (25 trillion 820.4 billion won).
Spending on prescription drugs has increased annually from about 20 trillion won in 2020, with an average annual increase of 7.8% over the past five years. In particular, the outpatient claims amounted to 23 trillion 556 billion won, accounting for 87.3% of the total, and increased by 5.2% from the previous year. Claims related to hospitalization totaled 3 trillion 433.7 billion won, showing only a 0.1% increase.
By type of medical institution, the claims amount from pharmacies was the highest at 18 trillion 493.8 billion won (68.5%), followed by tertiary hospitals at 3 trillion 955 billion won (14.7%), general hospitals at 2 trillion 303.3 billion won (8.5%), clinics at 1 trillion 200.6 billion won (4.4%), and hospitals at 1 trillion 37 billion won (3.8%).
Analysis of claims by age group showed that the elderly population had a disproportionately large share. Claims from patients aged 70 and over amounted to 9 trillion 417 billion won, accounting for 33.5% of the total, while those in their 60s claimed 8 trillion 82 billion won (25.2%), and those in their 50s claimed 4 trillion 519.4 billion won (16.7%). Notably, claims from the elderly aged 65 and above reached 12 trillion 583.2 billion won, constituting 46.6% of the total, and increased by 6.7% from the previous year.
The impact of aging is becoming increasingly pronounced each year. As the proportion of the population aged 65 and over increases, their share of drug expenditure has steadily grown from 44.3% in 2020 to 46.6% in 2024.
By disease category, the expenditure on cardiovascular drugs was the highest at 5 trillion 140 billion won, followed by anticancer and immunomodulatory drugs at 4 trillion 150 billion won, gastrointestinal and metabolic drugs at 3 trillion 9000 billion won, and neurological drugs at 2 trillion 630 billion won.