Statistics and Medical Cost of Preterm in Korea / 한양의대학술지

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the neonatal birth rate, premature birth rate, premature survival rate and the neonatal treatment costs in Korea. The neonatal birth rate has decreased steadily during past 40 years, which is a serious social problem. However, the premature birth rate has increased by about 8~9 % because most complicated pregnancies were early delivered and the social environment has changed. The survival rate of the preterm has increased remarkably due to improvements in neonatology in Korea from 40% in 1980, to 71% in 1990, and to 78% in 2000. The newest report in 2007 for survival rates of the preterm was 95.3% for low birth weight infants, 84.7% for very low birth weight infants and 67.7% for extremely low birth weight infants. The average total hospitalization cost per person who were admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit was 4,360,000 won. The portion of the hospitalization cost covered by the National health insurance was 77.1% and 22.9% of the total hospitalization cost was not covered by the National health insurance. The hospitalization cost increased as the birth weight decreased and as the hospitalization period increased.