Basic Law on Service Industry Development and medical privatization

ABSTRACT

The Korean government is preparing the Basic Law on Service Industry Development(BLID). The final aim of the BLID is to improve competition and productivity in service industries. Industrialization and privatization generally result in the pursuit of profit. Health services are one of the services covered by the BLID. There are arguments that health services areone of the service industries that pursue profit on a preferential basis. Health services first pursue equity and then efficiency. There is an existing law for health services called the Basic Law on Health Care(BLHC). The BLHC contains the main contents of the BLID, but the aims of these two laws are different. Therefore, health services should be regulated by the BLHC, not the BLID, because health services are means of ensuring citizen's health, not profit.