“Chuna therapy treatment costs have increased by 60% in 4 years… 188 claims per person”

Last year, health insurance and auto insurance Chuna therapy medical expenses amounted to 684.9 billion won.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jan-di = Chuna therapy medical expenses have increased by 60% in four years, and as of last year, the combined size of health insurance and auto insurance exceeded 680 billion won.

According to data received from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service by People Power Party Rep. Jia Han, a member of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly, on the 16th, the cost of Chuna therapy last year was 215.5 billion won for health insurance and 469.4 billion won for automobile insurance, reaching a total of 684.9 billion won.

It increased by 60.0% compared to 428.1 billion won in 2021.

Chuna therapy medical expenses increased by 57.6% from 136.8 billion won in health insurance in 2021 to 215.5 billion won in 2025, and auto insurance increased by 61.1% from 291.3 billion won to 469.4 billion won during the same period.

The number of health insurance cases also increased by 35.4% from approximately 4.86 million to 6.57 million times, and automobile insurance increased by 38.8% from approximately 12.22 million times to 16.96 million times.

In particular, in automobile insurance, there was a case where Chuna therapy was claimed for the same patient 188 times per year.

This is the case of an oriental medicine clinic in 2024, and it is the highest figure among the data submitted by the HIRA for the top five people with the highest number of claims per year for automobile insurance between 2021 and 2025.

As Chuna therapy treatment costs are rapidly increasing and repeat use continues to increase, the congressman's office pointed out that there is a need to verify how effectively the existing screening standards are managing excessive treatment.

As the government previously introduced management benefits to prevent excessive treatment of manual therapy, effective management should also be provided for Chuna therapy.

Rep. Jia Han emphasized, “Reasonable differences according to medical characteristics of each treatment should be recognized, but there should be no exceptions in managing excessive treatment,” and added, “We must improve the management system by inspecting the status of repeated claims and review and adjustment for Chuna therapy in health insurance and auto insurance.”