[iNews24 reporter Kim Da-un] The Coalition for the Dramatic Expansion of Care Financing (Care Financing Coalition), a social coalition advocating a major increase in funding for care, officially launched and has begun substantive discussions on securing the resources needed to implement integrated care.
The Care Financing Coalition announced on the 24th that it will hold a launch ceremony at 9 a.m. on the 27th in Conference Room 2 of the National Assembly Members' Office Building, followed immediately by a \"Policy Forum to Secure Integrated Care Funding for 2027\" to focus debate on the current state of care financing and the scale and direction of funding needed through 2027.
The launch comes as securing funding has emerged as a central challenge to making the Integrated Care Support Act function in practice since the law took effect.
Demand for care is rising rapidly, yet a stable financial base to support it remains lacking.
To address this shortfall, the coalition plans to build public consensus and press for policy action through a solidarity network that brings together organizations representing older adults, people with disabilities, patients, labor, civic groups, farmers, women’s organizations, environmental advocates, arts and culture, health care, and social welfare.
At the policy forum following the launch, participants will assess the current structure and limits of care financing and concentrate discussions on the funding scale and strategies required to establish an integrated care system.
Organizers expect the forum to produce a range of proposals on mid-to-long-term financial strategies targeting 2027 and on how responsibilities should be shared between the central government and local authorities.
The forum is co-hosted by Nam In-soon, Lee Su-jin, Seo Young-seok, Kim Yoon, Jeon Jin-sook, and Kim Sun-min, and is designed to provide a comprehensive review of the current state, structure, and future funding needs of care financing.
Former Korea Labor Institute President Bae Gyu-sik will chair the session, which will proceed with keynote presentations followed by designated discussions.
In the keynote segment, Kim I-bae, a specialist with the Korea Association of City, County and District Mayors, will present on local government fiscal conditions and the reality of care financing. The Care and Future Care Finance Task Force will present estimates of care funding requirements for 2027.
Designated discussants will include Kim Dong-ho, policy chair of the Korea Federation of Organizations of the Disabled; Park Joo-hyun, senior deputy director of Policy Division 2 at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; Seo Han-gi, health and welfare reporter at Yonhap News; Byun Seong-mi, Director of Integrated Care Projects at the Ministry of Health and Welfare; and Jin Min-gyu, Director of the National Welfare Budget Division at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. They will exchange views on financing strategies and policy direction.
The forum is significant because it aims to bring the funding issue—which rose to the top of the agenda after the Integrated Care Support Act took effect—into substantive public debate.
Organizers emphasized that, while demand for care is increasing rapidly, the financial foundation to support it remains insufficient, making the urgent task of securing stable and sustainable funding essential.
Now that integrated care has been institutionalized, organizers say funding discussions necessary to make it work can no longer be postponed; securing sufficient and stable funding is essential to making care a societal responsibility.
They added that this joint action will serve as a starting point for a broad coalition of social actors, and that the forum will be used to broaden public support for expanding care funding.
