* CONTENTS

1. Introduction 2. Structure and Trends of Health Expenditure 3. Conclusions

* SUMMARY

Several Korean researchers had previously produced independent estimates of total health expenditure in Korea. While most estimates were sound within the different frameworks chosen, it was difficult to compare them with OECD estimates for other countries because they included different health expenditure items. Since 2003, the Min istry of Health and Welfare has commissioned Yonsei University to undertake a project involving the construction of Korean National Health Accounts according to the OECD’'s SHA, which was judged as a very useful standard for presenting national health accounts. The availability of OECD’'s manual SHA has been a great opportunity in producing National Health Accounts in Korea. Both differences in data on which the estimates are based and in methodology used resulted in significant changes in the structure and value of total health expenditure between the pre-SHA estimates and the SHA estimates. With these new estimates it is possible to compare the total health expenditure of Korea with other OECD countries better. Awareness and appreciation of the need and gains from applying SHA for the health expenditure classification has been increasing as OECD health expenditure figures get more frequently quoted among health policy makers. In the process of construction and submission to the OECD of SHA data for the last few years, a general acceptance of the value of regularly updating health accounts has been formulated inside and outside government...