(Health Korea News / Lee Chang-yong) While the medical crisis continues for eight months, foreign cosmetic surgery medical tourism has reached an all-time high and appears to be a ‘big success’. Concerns are raised that if medical resources are concentrated only on cosmetic surgery, it may lead to side effects such as a decline in the quality of essential and public medical care. In particular, this runs counter to the government’s purpose of increasing the number of medical school students to secure essential medical personnel.
According to the ‘Status of Support Projects for Attracting Foreign Patients’, a government audit data submitted by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to National Assembly member Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party of Korea (Health and Welfare Committee, Seoul Songpa-dong), the number of cosmetic surgery VAT refunds as of June of this year has decreased despite the medical crisis caused by legislative conflict. The number was 413,276, which far exceeded the number of refunds last year, which was 383,665.
A total of 1,207,358 cases were refunded over 8 years and 3 months from April 2016, when the cosmetic surgery value-added tax refund system began, to June 2024, and the total refund amount was KRW 146.7 billion. The number of foreign cosmetic surgery patients, which had steadily increased since 2016, plummeted due to COVID-19 and then began to rapidly increase after the end of COVID-19, increasing more than seven times from 52,552 cases in 2022 to 383,665 cases in 2023.
As of the first half of 2024, the number of VAT refunds by cosmetic surgery medical service was 62,683, with the largest number being skin regeneration, skin whitening, anti-aging treatment, and pore treatment, followed by wrinkle removal surgery (23,740 cases), double eyelid surgery (14,213 cases), and fat treatment (23,740 cases). This was followed by 5,910 cases of fusion surgery and 3,864 cases of liposuction.
The foreigners who visit Korea most often to receive cosmetic surgery services are Japanese. According to data for four years from 2019 to 2023, Japanese people accounted for 43.6% of the total with 228,901 people, Chinese people were 163,659 people (31.2%), Americans were 60,817 people (11.6%), and Thai people were 5 people. 19,761 people (11.4%) were Mongolians, followed by 11,348 people (2.2%).
Rep. Nam In-soon said, “Despite the medical crisis that has lasted for eight months, the number of cosmetic surgery refunds for foreign tourists has reached an all-time high without any damage,” adding, “As the skin, beauty, and plastic surgery markets have expanded, the salaries of related doctors have also continued to increase, making them essential medical personnel. “There are concerns that it is encouraging the departure of people and distorting the health care system,” he pointed out.
At the same time, he argued, “We must pursue policies to strengthen local, essential, and public medical care to create a structure where essential medical personnel can work stably.”
The current ‘Special Taxation Act’ provides for ‘special cases of value-added tax refund for cosmetic surgery medical services for foreign tourists’. In order to improve the transparency of the foreign patient attraction market and support the attraction of medical tourism, it was decided to temporarily refund value-added tax to foreign patients, but this has been extended until 2025 through annual amendments to the bill.
Rep. Nam said, “At the time, we revised the ‘Special Taxation Restriction Act’ several times for the special VAT system that was supposed to be operated temporarily, and to date, we have refunded 150 billion won in VAT,” adding, “Not only is there tax inequality with Koreans, but there is also a lack of tax revenue. “Considering the negative impact on the overall health care system due to the focus on cosmetic surgery, a complete reexamination is necessary,” he said.
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Source: www.hkn24.com
