The South Korean government has unveiled a national health policy blueprint encompassing everything from youth health to climate crisis response. The core of the plan is a sweeping expansion of policy scope to address structural problems including declining healthy life expectancy and widening health gaps across income levels and regions.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday it held a meeting of the National Health Promotion Policy Deliberation Committee and approved the "6th National Health Promotion Comprehensive Plan (2026–2030)." The plan supplements the mid- to long-term health promotion framework, which is established on a 10-year cycle, with five-year updates, setting the direction for cross-government health policy over the next five years.
Deteriorating health indicators prompted the government to overhaul its policies. Healthy life expectancy stood at 69.9 years as of 2022, down 0.5 years from 2018, and the gap with overall life expectancy widened to 12.8 years. The health gap between income groups has also expanded, cementing a pattern in which people "live longer but spend more years in poor health." Only about half of 64 core indicators showed improvement, while key metrics such as the suicide mortality rate and obesity and diabetes prevalence rates actually worsened.
In response, the government reorganized its agenda around emerging risks including youth health, chronic diseases and the climate crisis while maintaining the existing policy framework. The plan comprises seven divisions and 32 priority tasks. Notably, youth health and climate crisis response were separated into distinct policy pillars.
Youth health policy interventions were significantly strengthened based on the assessment that youth health is "the starting point of health disparities." The government will expand mental health screenings and early treatment subsidies for all young people and introduce one-on-one online counseling services for isolated and reclusive youth. Customized health management services will be provided to vulnerable young people such as those aging out of institutional care and young carers. The government also plans to preemptively manage chronic disease risk factors through expanded community sports infrastructure and healthy lifestyle incentive payments.
The plan also addresses the rapidly growing burden of chronic diseases driven by an aging population. Moving beyond the existing focus on hypertension and diabetes management, the government will build a national-level integrated management system covering a broader range of chronic diseases and expand primary care-centered, community-based management models. It also plans to strengthen the scientific basis for policy by linking National Health Insurance big data with community health surveys.
Climate crisis response was included as an independent policy area for the first time in the plan. The initiative aims to comprehensively manage the health impacts of climate change, covering not only heat-related and cold-related illnesses caused by heatwaves and cold snaps but also infectious diseases, chronic conditions and mental health. To this end, the government will establish emergency care systems to protect climate-vulnerable populations, upgrade health impact surveillance systems, and strengthen response personnel and public education programs.
The management framework for reducing health disparities will also become more rigorous. The government will expand health equity indicators from 176 to 225 and conduct detailed analysis of the causes of disparities through indicators broken down by income level and region. Each priority task will be assigned a representative equity initiative to intensively monitor the effectiveness of gap-reduction efforts during policy implementation.
Based on the plan, the government will develop ministry-level and annual action plans, and enhance policy effectiveness by linking them with local governments' regional health care plans and integrated health promotion programs. "The plan contains strategies to respond to the changed policy environment including youth health, chronic diseases and the climate crisis," Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Hyung-hoon said. "We will strengthen implementation so that all citizens can enjoy healthier lives."