Hospitals may be closed over phony insurance bills

Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Won-Gil said Thursday that medical institutions may be closed forcibly if they are found to have submitted false bills for insurance money. In a lecture meeting over breakfast hosted by the 21st Managers` Club at the Seoul Westin Chosun Hotel, the new health and welfare minister said, ``All the people are angry with the undue demand for the payment of insurance money. So we are now preparing the strongest-ever measures that may surprise all.``

Kim introduced as an illicit case checked by the ministry the demand for the payment made under the names of bogus clinics that a doctor set up near his clinic. ``First of all, we will thoroughly crack down on undue demands as an initial means to tide over the crisis of medical insurance finance.`` As for his controversial idea of introducing a ``object tax,`` Kim said, ``We need to examine imposing taxes on cigarettes or liquors under the judgment that it is hard for the government to maintain insurance finance on a stable basis only with the revenue from premiums.``

``However, this is my personal view and the government has not yet seriously considered it,`` he added.

[Yonhap]