Korean Job Discussion Forums

[KYC]

I need to get a medical check for my new job that'll start in August. I called Seoul National University Hospital to schedule an appointment. They first asked if I had health insurance and I said yes. Then they said it's not covered under the insurance. WTH? What's the point of having insurance then? Isn't it like a phyical???

Is this true? It really isn't covered?

[ttompatz]

[KYC]

ah that bites. I had all that done back home last August and it was free. Well, I had a government job back then.


Any recommendations on where I should go?? Thanks!

[Zaria32]

You have to go to a hospital that Immigration tells you to go to...don't try and lone ranger it, or you'll end up paying for it twice.

[esetters21]

The full exam with all of the tests that immigration requires costs less than 80,000krw, and NO it is not covered by NHIC.

[icicle]

I knew that it wasn't going to be covered by Insurance ... but in the end consider myself lucky that without me saying anything my hagwon arranged for the appointment at the acceptable place, took me and paid for it ... Including needing to go back and do a second urine test when the first one was for no obvious reason not positive or negative ... While that did also mean that they ended up knowing the results ... or at least more of the results than I did due to the language barrier ... That is something that I could live with ... They already had the health check form details anyway beause they have to see it as one of the things they have to submit to immigration to apply for your visa ... And I had declared the relevant parts of my medical history on the form ...

[Sody]

[icicle]

You are both right ... and have actually said much the same thing ...

It is true that you can't just go to any doctor or hospital ... It needs to be one which is legally entitled to do the test ... It cannot just be any doctor or any hospital ... If you do go to one which is not accepted then you will have to pay for it twice ... Because you will have to do it again at one which is accepted ... or as the last poster said ... one which is legally entitled to do it ... Depending on where you are in the country you may find that you only have one accepted place ... But in Seoul there is a wide range of accepted places ... If in doubt I would follow the advice of Immigration about who is accpepted in the area in which you live ... Your school will often know who is accepted because what we are doing is similar to the health check which most Korean employees need to undertake along with the requirement that it include and report on two specific tests ....