Insurance. It could be confusing because Korea recently changed a law for foreigners living inside Korea. Now, as you reside in korea (unless you are staying with a traveler’s visa), you must have National health insurance.
National health insurance.
How do I sign up?
Once you register for the ARC, you are automatically signed up to National Health insurance from the date of alien registration.
How do I pay?
You will receive invoice to the address you wrote down. So it is important to update your address as soon as you move out!! One of the payments is paying through convenience store. On the bottom of the slip, it has a list of convenience stores you can pay at with cash.
Where is the insurance office?
There are several branches, Here is one of them (the most frequent one I think)
3rd floor, Sindorim Techno Mart(Upmu-dong), 97, Saemal-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul Subway
Line 1 and Line 2, Sindorim Station, Leave via exit 2 or 3> connects to B1 of Techno Mart (in the direction of the West finance center)
Please take a look at the attached file. It has Korean/English/Chinese/ Vietnamese/ Uzbek available
https://www.nhis.or.kr/english/wbheaa03500m01.do?mode=download&articleNo=10814171&attachNo=323871
Additional health insurance
Additionally, my school required additional health insurance. Well I’m assuming this because the National Health insurance can’t cover to the level “Me and my wallet is fine”. There are two types. One is having insurance before coming to Korea. If you haven’t, don’t worry. There are insurances you can register in Korea. For some school, they provide insurance plans through international office. Checking out your school website can be a good idea!
This is the Health Insurance Minimum Coverage that my school recommended. Hope this helps for your decision!
Thanks for reading!
Your friend, Shai