Guide · as of 2026-08-09T00:00:00.000Z
National Health Insurance (NHIS) enrollment has been mandatory for foreigners staying in Korea 6 months or longer since 2019-07-16. The 2026 premium rate for employees is 7.19% of monthly salary, split equally between employer and employee (3.595% each), plus long-term care insurance at 13.14% of the health premium. Local subscribers (지역가입자) — the self-employed, freelancers, students past their exemption, and the unemployed — pay a premium calculated from income and property, with a floor at the previous year’s national average premium; for foreign local subscribers in 2026 that floor is ₩158,630 per month including long-term care (₩140,210 health + ₩18,420 long-term care — NHIS 2026 rate notice, up 3.80% on 2025).
The two subscriber classes
직장가입자 (employee subscribers). Anyone employed at a workplace is enrolled from the first day of work regardless of length of stay. The 2026 rates, confirmed by NHIS and the Ministry of Health and Welfare: health insurance 7.19% of reported monthly salary (up 1.48% from 2025’s 7.09%), of which the employee pays half; long-term care insurance (장기요양보험) at 13.14% of the health premium, equivalent to 0.9448% of salary. On a ₩3,500,000 salary: health ₩125,825 employee share, long-term care roughly ₩16,533, total employee deduction about ₩142,000.
지역가입자 (local subscribers). Everyone else who has passed the enrollment trigger. The premium formula is the same income-and-property calculation applied to Koreans, with one difference specific to foreigners: if the calculated premium is below the average premium of all subscribers as of the end of the previous November, the average is charged instead (NHIS local premium rules for foreign nationals). In practice most foreign local subscribers with no Korean income or property pay exactly the floor amount. Students on D-2 and D-4 visas receive a 50% premium reduction (unverified: current reduction scope), and certain statuses including F-5 and F-6 are assessed without the average-premium floor, i.e. on the same basis as nationals.
The 6-month rule
Enrollment as a local subscriber becomes mandatory once 6 months have passed from the entry date. Exceptions enrolled immediately upon registration rather than after 6 months: D-2 (student), D-4-3, E-9 (non-professional employment), F-5 (permanent resident), F-6 (marriage migrant). Excluded from mandatory enrollment entirely: A-1, A-2, A-3 diplomatic/official statuses and G-1 (except humanitarian-stay G-1-6). A stay interrupted by an absence of 30 days or more restarts the 6-month clock (unverified: current absence rule details).
Dependents (피부양자) of employee subscribers — spouse and children — also require 6 months of residence in Korea before they can be registered as dependents, under rules effective 2024-04-03 (unverified: exemption list for spouses and minors).
Non-payment consequences
Arrears are linked to immigration: unpaid NHIS premiums surface in visa extension screening at immigration offices, and extensions can be shortened or withheld until arrears are cleared (unverified: current threshold amount). Premiums are charged from the enrollment date whether or not the subscriber ever visits a hospital, and back-billing applies from the date the obligation arose, not the date the subscriber becomes aware of it.
What enrollment buys
The standard NHIS schedule: 30–60% patient copayment ranges at clinics and hospitals, annual out-of-pocket caps by income decile, national health screening every two years, and coverage identical to that of Korean nationals. Private “expat insurance” does not exempt anyone from mandatory NHIS enrollment; the premiums accrue regardless.