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[Image source=Yonhap News]

The confirmation hearing for Cho Kyu-hong, nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare (photo), will be held on the 27th. It has been about four months since the position of Minister of Health and Welfare became vacant after two consecutive nominees, Jeong Ho-young and Kim Seung-hee, were dismissed under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

The National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee will begin the confirmation hearing for nominee Cho at 10 a.m. on the 27th. Cho previously served as Policy Advisor to the Minister, Economic Budget Review Officer, and Fiscal Management Officer at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. During the 20th presidential election, he was the Budget Adjustment Subcommittee Chair of the People Power Party’s Central Election Committee, and after the election, he worked as a Specialist in the Economic Division 1 of the Presidential Transition Committee. Following the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, he was appointed as the First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare in May and was nominated as Minister of Health and Welfare on the 7th of this month.

At the hearing, the focus is expected to be on verifying Cho’s expertise in health and welfare, given his background as a Ministry of Economy and Finance official. The opposition party and some civic groups have expressed concerns that if Cho becomes minister, he will reduce welfare and public healthcare services and promote medical privatization.

In response, Cho stated, "I have experience in establishing short-term welfare strategies and have been involved in drafting welfare budgets in the budget management division. While working at the Blue House, I also had opportunities to engage with welfare issues." He added, "I will closely communicate with the Ministry of Health and Welfare staff who are healthcare experts and have rich experience to find reasonable alternatives."

Controversy has also arisen over the fact that while working as an executive at an international financial institution earning a salary in the hundreds of millions of won for nearly three years, Cho simultaneously received a government pension and obtained dependent status as a workplace health insurance subscriber, resulting in not paying insurance premiums for 17 months.

Regarding this, Cho’s side stated, "The salary from the international financial institution is tax-exempt income according to international organization agreements, so there is no issue with receiving the full government pension." Concerning the fact that Cho received over 40 million won annually in government pension while being registered as a dependent of his spouse, a workplace health insurance subscriber, and thus did not pay health insurance premiums from late 2018 to early 2020, they explained, "This happened due to the National Health Insurance Service’s 'automatic dependent registration' system."

Cho is also under suspicion regarding preferential treatment during military service, false address registration and household separation for his children, special supply in Sejong City, and personal deductions related to his father-in-law. Cho denied the preferential treatment allegations, saying, "I served as a short-term soldier according to the Military Service Act at the time, which allowed me to attend graduate school," and explained the household separation for his children as "unavoidable to help a child who was having difficulties with peer relationships."

Regarding why he did not reside in the apartment specially allocated in Sejong City in 2012, Cho claimed, "I needed a house in Seoul to live with my child attending university there. I did not gain any economic benefit." On the criticism that Cho’s spouse claimed personal deductions for a deceased father-in-law during year-end tax settlements over the past two years, Cho admitted it was "the nominee’s oversight" and returned 1,672,820 won to the National Tax Service.

Meanwhile, in a written response submitted to the National Assembly ahead of the confirmation hearing, Cho stated, "To alleviate public concerns about the depletion of the National Pension Fund, if necessary, we can consider formalizing a 'payment guarantee'." Regarding the controversy over increasing the number of doctors, he said, "We will discuss the appropriate expansion of medical personnel with the medical community, taking into account the stabilization trend of COVID-19 and other factors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.