Abstract

While there have been many discussions on regional inequalities in healthcare resources in Korea, there has been a lack of analysis of the underlying problems and solutions. In particular, there has been a lack of discussion that criticizes the limitations of healthcare resource allocation policies that utilize the market-oriented private healthcare sector and analyzes the failure of the government and local governments to fulfill their responsibilities and duties. This paper analyzes the historical development and limitations of policies that led to the emergence of regional inequality in healthcare resources in Korea, and suggests that the public healthcare sector should be utilized to resolve regional inequality in healthcare resources and that the role of centralization and decentralization should be divided as a policy direction.