Korean Health Care

I'll be heading to the dentist tomorrow because I've been incessantly grind my teeth at night for a while now.   Though I do have health insurance through my parents, I've really wondered how I'll fare when I'm in Korea.

Pictured above Korean plastic surgeon (don't think that's covered)

As you might know Korea has universal health insurance where 100% of the population is covered with almost the exact benefit package.  Americans, on the other hand, have had a declining rate of health insurance from 86 to 82% (insurance widely ranges from provider to provider).  I've been reading up on this phenomenon through this report.

Heres a brief synopsis of said report:

Enacted in 1976, universal health insurance in Korea only took 13 years for them to fully adjust the society from 10% of the population being insured to 100%.  How the Koreans did this was by setting up socities that control the collection, distribution and accumulation of insurance monies.  By starting with the largest companies and working their way to the smallest companies Korea was able to fully transform their society to follow this new law of universal coverage.  Employees and employers share the cost ranging from 3-8% of monthly wages and levels of contributions are based on income (the average share an employee pays is 1.8%). 

Benefits that all Koreans have (foreigners too):

They have the same benefit package independent of the amount contributed, meaning joe kim who is a farmer and contributes $20 a month has the same benefits as money kim who contributes $300 a month.

Unlimited hopsital visits

Access to any facility

Dependents automatically covered

Notable things that aren't covered are hospital meals as they are considered the families responsibilities.

America could learn a thing or two from Korea in regards to universal health insurance.  There are some kinks in the Korean system but it puts the American system to shame.

Maybe I'll have to get teeth removed in Korea and I'll get to experience their health care system first hand.

Let's hope the dentist doesn't pull out these suckers tomorrow.....

Journal, a Friend and Sweaty Eyes

Again spent my day scanning documents, but found an interesting read on a blog about journaling.  I guess I hopped and skipped around blogs on Korea and one guy linked to the above mentioned blog on journaling.  I've heard from many of my college professors (usually psychology professors) say to keep a journal as it is a real good tool to help reflect and make sense of your life.  The above blog does an amazing job saying why it is a good idea to start one and really got me interested in starting one.  Technically I've already started a journal with this blog but I guess I want to get deeper and divulging all the details in my life doesn't seem like a great idea.  Though I might throw up some deep philosophical entries here.

Also spent the night catching up with a good old friend.  We talked about traveling the world, conspiracy theories and updating each other on where we are in life.  I'm starting to cherish relationships with people close to me as I'll not be able to see them for months.  I've noticed I've taken the relationships that I've built up for granted.  Well what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.  Korea will be a time for me to grow in many different ways.

Hopefully the sweat will stay out of my eyes while I run.  93 degrees is smokin' hot to be running.

My town

New person: Sean where are you from?

Me: New York.

New person: How's the city?

Me: Yeah I don't live in the city.

New person: Well you live in New York city right?

Me:  No, I live in a town where cows out number people.

New person: *stunned look on face * Oh ok.

That usually is the initial conversation I have with most people I meet.  Many people don't realize that there is a huge land mass above NYC that has just as many people as NYC and gets rural, extremely rural.  

So how rural does my small town get.

Here is Main Street where there are about 10 small shops total including a small grocery store, two gas stations and about 5 pizza shops (at least that is how many their use to be).  This is what's called the village.

Less than a mile from the village you start to see lots of green and.....

Lots of farms with.....

all our inhabitants that live near....

our classy housing.  You go a little further into what's considered the city (yes I said city) and you see.....

dirt roads with none other than.....

Amish!!!!

Talk about a time warp to the 1800's in less than 10 minutes all in my quaint little town.  Now some people say to time travel one must consume inordinate amounts of alcohol but I would have to disagree and tell them to run in my town instead.

Last but not least we have angry woodchucks here too...

Hopefully in the next few days I'll find out exactly which town I'll be placed in which will tell me if I'll be in the Korean version of my hometown or not.  I sure hope that it is a bigger town/city.  I don't wanna be stationed in a trailer in the middle of a rice field next to the Korean equivalent of the Amish.

Korean media vs Hollywood

To keep myself entertained while at the same time trying to listen to as much Korean as possible I've been watching Korean dramas and movies on the net.  For those who aren't aware there is an enormous difference between Hollywood and Korean media.  Though both are quite predictable they are predictable in different ways.  Hollywood seems to fantasize about happy endings and continuously repeats it in many of the movies.  I'm not saying all American movies have a happy ending but the majority of films and TV shows follow the happy ending scheme.  Happiness followed by conflict followed by climax followed by happy ending.  The total opposite is true with Korean dramas and movies where there rarely is a happy ending.  The Korean writers and directors pull at your heart strings with multiple stories that coalesce into a complex main story that usually ends in the worst possible manner.  Think of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on steroids in Korean.  Don't get me wrong not all of Korean movies and dramas are grotesquely pessimistic some are slightly pessimistic, light hearted and humorous or any combination thereof.  

It's also interesting to see the different ways the Korean media attempts to display the ideal Korean image.  A common trend I've noticed of the movies/dramas are about girls trying to get married off into a rich family and getting their heart broken along the way usually by their family or the intended person's family.  One could surmise appearance, money, food and family values are very important to the Korean culture from their media.  Korean story lines would be hard to pull off in America because our culture is so vastly different although I'm sure people would find it somewhat entertaining to see something different from Hollywood.

4th of July Picnic

The 4th of July weekend is synonymous with picnics and it could not have been a better day for one.  Picnics with my family is one of the things that I truly enjoy about the summer.  Lazing around in a nice park, grilling and mingling with the family definitely equals a good time.  My father is officially making his way over the hill turning 50 later this week so we had a birthday celebration as well.

Star was on her best behavior even with a few dogs within close proximity. The fur ball really enjoyed laying in the grass where it was a good 10 degrees cooler.

Na na na boo boo.  I sticky ze tongue at you. 

After getting the grill to work after several failed lighting attempts, the grill needs some fixing, this was the end product.  The quintessential picnic meal burger, hotdog, macaroni salad and mac and cheese.  My grandmother's macaroni salad is to die for with its balanced sweet and tangy flavors combined with the subtle fresh bursts of vegetables.  I would have to say I do not eat this American often but I do enjoy it when I do.  Years ago, I would eat like this constantly, feel so tired and stuffed but running 8 miles earlier in the day my body needed that many calories.  I felt wonderful afterwards and will definitely need the energy tomorrow for my long run.

Should I exchange now or later?

That is the question.  Today you would have found me scanning thousands of documents into the computer database and also researching on currency exchange.  Though it seems like I wasn't doing a lot of work I was.  To scan it only takes me about 1 minute to get 15 reports put them in the scanner and hit the button which is followed by 10 minutes of down time while the scanner reads them all.  Some might find it boring to do this all day but I have found it gives me time to study, meditate or research about my trip and today it was researching currency exchange.

The Korean currency is called the won (pictured to the left).  The dollar is quite strong against the won at 1 usd to 1,227 won.  That bill to the left is called man won (pronounced mahn wahn) and is as you might have guessed $8.14.  The funny thing is that man won was the highest bill in circulation up until a few years ago when a 50,000 won note was introduced, but I've heard that it is still pretty rare to see.  That means if you need to pay 1,000,000 won for something you need a stack of 100 man won!  I can just imagine a younger guy out to buy a top of the line rice cooker for his new bachelor pad and his friend stops and asks "you packing a lot of man won or are you happy to see me?"  ahahaha

Anyway,  I found myself trying to decide on exchanging my usd to won in the states through these forex companies that buy currencies at decent prices or wait to exchange in Korea.  Too bad none of the exchange companies in Korea ADVERTISE how much their fee and exchange rate is.  I know they can give you sub par exchange rates and add tons of fees on top of that, but these forex companies exchange for 9% less than the current rate with shipping included.  Also, too bad the TaLK program has not really helped in this regard.  I might exchange a couple hundred here (with those forex companies) and then do the rest when I'm in Korea.  I guess that would spread out my exchange rate risk a little.

Sorry Uncle Kim and Uncle Sam

So I found the IRS document 8802 and filled it out today.  For those of you who do not know it is the form that is needed to get a Certificate of Residency from the IRS.  One of the wonderful perks of teaching at a public school in Korea is you can defer up to 2 years of Korean income tax which is currently 8%.  Though the Korean tax is much lower than the 15% that would be paid in the states, with the same amount of income, it is always nice to have a break. You only need to get this IRS 8802 document filled out, send it with $35, receive the certificate, show it to your principal and you are all set.  No taxes.  From my calculations I will save myself around $450 at the current exchange rate after paying the certificate fee.  But wait it gets better.  In the snazzy financial planning course that I took on tax planning, I learned that US citizens are exempt from paying foreign income up to $91,500.  Score.  

That means that I DO NOT have to pay Uncle Sam for a good 5 months!  The only thing that will be taken from my paycheck in Korea will be for the national pension system which is 4.5%, rougly $55 a month, but I can receive that money back right before I leave.

I wondered how much I make an hour doing this teaching gig and it roughly equals $28/hour after taxes.  That is including housing at about $400/month, however, this is not including the free meals, universal health insurance (I'll blog on that later) and cultural excursions that are paid for by the program as well.   I would have to be making $35 to $40 an hour before taxes here in the states to match what I'll be getting.  Plus, I'll be in a different country!

I'd have to say this beats the pants off most of the jobs I've had so far in terms of finances.  Though I have to forgo some precious things in the States.