NHIS Health Insurance in Korea: Requirement, Premiums and Exemption for Foreigners

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This post explains who has to join Korea's national health insurance NHIS and how you pay as an employee or as a self-insured person. It also covers discounts, the exemption for equivalent coverage, and the benefits. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🏥 Who has to join the NHIS? Since July 16, 2019, foreigners who live in Korea for more than six months have to join the national health insurance NHIS, as self-insured people (in English: local subscribers). If you work for an insured company in Korea, you are also automatically insured through your employer. More on that in the next section. 👉 For you: If you live in Korea for more than six months, the NHIS requirement applies to you. You can reach English-language NHIS advice at 033-811-2000. ━━━━━━━━━━ 💼 Employed: you're in automatically If you work for an insured company in Korea, you are automatically insured through your employer. In 2026 the contribution is 7.19% of your monthly pay. Your employer pays half of it, and your share is deducted from your pay. 👉 For you: As an employee, your share is deducted from your pay. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🎓 Self-insured: how your premium is calculated Self-insured people pay based on income and assets, just like Koreans. If the calculated amount is below the average contribution, the average contribution is due instead. There are discounts: 50% for the D-2 and D-4 visas (university, language school) and F-4, which has applied since March 2023. There is a 30% discount for D-6 and G-1. According to the NHIS, contributions are due on the 10th of the following month. 👉 For you: Check whether your visa is one of the discounted categories. ━━━━━━━━━━ 📝 Exemption with equivalent coverage Employees who have equivalent coverage from a foreign insurance or through their work contract can apply for an exemption. If the application is made within 14 days, the exemption applies from the start. 👉 For you: If you're an employee and already have equivalent coverage elsewhere, you can apply for an exemption. If you apply within 14 days, it applies from the start. ━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ What you get in return Insured foreigners get the same benefits as Koreans. These include prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehab. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Sources NHIS – Guidance for foreigners https://www.nhis.or.kr/english/wbheaa02900m01.do NHIS – Contributions https://www.nhis.or.kr/english/wbheaa02500m01.do ━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 How does the NHIS work for you: employed or self-insured, and what experience have you had with the premium or an exemption? 📲 On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lebeninkorea_en/ 📸 Photos: Runxin Ye, Marek Piwnicki, Marissa Lewis (Unsplash); Korea Heritage Service, Seoul Tourism Organization, 서울관광 아카이브, Korea Tourism Organization, Lee Bumsu (KOGL Type 1)