An epidemic of cataract surgery in Korea: the effects of private health insurance on the National Health Insurance Service

OBJECTIVES In Korea, the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) covers essential healthcare expenses, including cataract surgery. To address concerns that private health insurance (PHI) might have inflated the need for such procedures, we investigated the extent of the PHI-attributable increase in cataract surgery and its impact on NHIS-reimbursed expenses. METHODS This retrospective, observational study uses nationwide claims data for cataract surgery from 2016 to 2020. We examined trends in utilization and cost, and we estimated the excess numbers of (1) cataract operations attributable to PHI and (2) types of intraocular lenses used for cataract surgery in 2020. RESULTS Between 2016 and 2020, a 36.8% increase occurred in the number of cataract operations, with increases of 63.5% and 731.8% in the total healthcare costs reimbursed by NHIS and PHI, respectively. Over a 5-year period, the surgical rate per 100,000 people doubled for patients aged