The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has ruled that excluding medical certificates issued by traditional Korean medicine practitioners from special transportation service eligibility reviews constitutes discrimination.
According to the Commission on the 18th, petitioner A, who operates a traditional Korean medicine clinic, issued a diagnostic certificate in May last year for a patient seeking to use special transportation services designated for temporarily mobility-impaired individuals and pregnant women. However, the local government refused to accept the certificate as valid documentation during its review process, prompting A to file a discrimination complaint with the Commission.
The local government responded that "restricting certificate-issuing institutions was an unavoidable measure given limited budget and personnel resources amid continuously increasing demand for special transportation services," adding that "Ministry of Health and Welfare guidelines do not explicitly grant traditional Korean medicine practitioners authority to assess disabilities."
The Commission countered that the Ministry guidelines serve only as criteria for registered disability assessments and cannot be applied to eligibility reviews for temporary special transportation services, which are unrelated to disability registration. The Commission also noted that traditional Korean medicine hospitals are classified as hospital-level medical institutions under the Medical Service Act, where licensed physicians may also practice. Accepting certificates from physicians at general hospitals while rejecting those from physicians at traditional Korean medicine hospitals effectively negates the validity of such certificates without examining the diagnosing practitioner or medical validity, the Commission found.
The Commission recommended the local government mayor revise relevant regulations to ensure certificates from traditional Korean medicine clinics and hospitals are not excluded from special transportation service eligibility reviews.
