SEOUL, KOREA - On April 14, the National Health Insurance Service Corp. officially raised a lawsuit against tobacco companies in Korea and elsewhere to ask for compensation of 54 billion won for the medical expenses related to cigarette smoking it has paid for several decades. A National Health Insurance Service official said on the same day, "Our attorneys submitted a complaint with the Seoul Central District Court at 9 am today. Even though the initial compensation amount was set at 53.7 billion won, it may be raised further."

 

The amount estimation was based on the assumption of medical cost for those smokers who have smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years or longer or those who have smoked for more than 30 years regardless of how many cigarettes they smoked a day. Legal counsel for the plaintiff will be Lim, Chung & Suh Attorneys at Law, which was selected by a public invitation process for 17 days between March 26 and April 11.

 

To this, the Korea Society for Tobacco Consumers responded in a statement, "Just last week the Supreme Court ruled in a tobacco case that there is little causal link between smoking by particular individuals and lung cancer. nonetheless, the national health insurance company insists on raising lawsuits, which will increase social cost and do no benefit whatsoever."