Wealthy landowner finds out the hard way to pay his bills
A resident of Ilwon-dong in Seoul's Gangnam district, who owned a house priced at about 1.3 billion won (US$1.4 million) as well as land, lost his holdings after not paying into the national health insurance system since 1997. The National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) at first sent several letters to press for payment from the man, identified by the surname Yu. The NHIC in 2001 seized land Yu owned, but he still refused to pay. The insurance body finally seized his house in July last year and offered it for public sale through the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO). His house and land were auctioned to a person identified as Kim for about 960 million won in September. When on November 15 Kim paid a visit to his new property - where Yu was still living - Yu immediately turned around and paid the overdue insurance fees of 11 million won. Yu appealed to the NHIC and KAMCO to cancel the sale of his house and land, but they told him that it was too late to do anything.According to the NHIC in September, about 50 very wealthy persons, such as professional sports players, actors, and lawyers, fail to pay their insurance fees annually, skipping out on charges of 16.5 million won on average. The annual income of these people stands at about 140 million won and they hold real estate worth one billion won or more. As of April, the number of households three months in arrears in terms of health insurance payment surpassed two million, with the funds they owed amounting to a total of about 1.3 trillion won Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
