Korean obesity experts are calling for national health insurance coverage of obesity drugs, arguing that the current private-pay market is creating a paradox in which patients who need treatment face barriers to access while people of normal weight increasingly use the drugs for cosmetic weight loss.
The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity (KSSO) made the call Thursday at a press conference during its fall academic meeting at Conrad Seoul, citing growing concerns over misuse and illegal distribution of GLP-1 obesity drugs.
The society said bringing obesity treatment into the national health insurance system would not only improve access for patients but also allow authorities to better monitor prescribing, treatment outcomes and misuse.
According to the KSSO’s 2026 Obesity Fact Sheet, 39.2 percent of Korean adults had obesity in 2024, while 24.9 percent had abdominal obesity.
Obesity Rates in Korea
The gap between men and women was particularly pronounced, with the obesity rate among adult men exceeding half the population at 51.1 percent, and 32.4 percent having abdominal obesity, compared with 27.7 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, among women.
At the same time, underweight was relatively common among younger women, with 14.2 percent of women aged 20 to 24 having a body mass index below 18.5, as did 10.8 percent of those aged 25 to 29.
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KSSO Chairperson Kim Min-seon of Asan Medical Center said, “The people who need obesity treatment as treatment for a disease are not using these drugs, while people who don’t actually need treatment are using them.”
Misuse of Obesity Drugs
Kim acknowledged that excessive restrictions could discourage appropriate obesity treatment but said the scale of misuse and problems with distribution had reached a point where government intervention was necessary.
“Obesity drugs are medicines for treating the disease of obesity,” she said, “Some form of regulation is necessary when medicines are being used unnecessarily or distributed illegally.”
KSSO Secretary General Lee Jae-hyuk of Myongji Hospital said banning remote prescriptions of obesity drugs had failed to eliminate misuse, and that proxy prescriptions remain common because the drugs are not covered by national health insurance.
Lee also pointed to cases of obesity drugs being illegally brought into Korea from Japan because of price differences between the two countries.
He argued that keeping obesity drugs outside the reimbursement system may itself contribute to the perception that they can be prescribed casually.
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Need for Regulation
Lee called for the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to move forward with designating obesity drugs as medicines subject to special controls over misuse, saying such a step could provide a starting point for more systematic oversight.
The issue was also discussed at a policy forum on national obesity management held after the press conference, where Lee Jun-hyuk of Nowon Eulji Medical Center said Korea’s current reimbursement system creates an access problem because most obesity treatments are not covered by national health insurance.
This creates a paradox, he said, because lower-income groups have a higher prevalence of obesity but poorer access to treatment.
“The biggest problem is the absence of public oversight,” Lee said, “We need a system within public health insurance that can manage the risk of misuse, monitor prescribing patterns and treatment responses, and oversee safety.”
In practice, this development means that people who are struggling with obesity may have a better chance of receiving the treatment they need, rather than being forced to rely on expensive private options or illicitly obtained medications.
The KSSO said it is discussing reimbursement of obesity drugs and potential coverage criteria with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
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Nam Ga-eun of Korea University Guro Hospital argued that tighter controls alone would not solve the problem, and that introducing obesity drugs through the reimbursed healthcare system, as in Japan, could affect not only their prices but also public perceptions of obesity treatment.
“Novo Nordisk is, in fact, actively considering applying for reimbursement,” Nam said, “We expect pharmaceutical companies to give reimbursement applications serious consideration going forward.”
The society suggested that seeking reimbursement could be made a condition when new obesity drugs seek regulatory approval in Korea.
Additionally, Lee Jae-hyuk noted that the massive size of the current non-reimbursed market for these therapies means most pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to voluntarily enter a regulated framework.
Consequently, the organization plans to continue proposing to the MFDS that approval for new obesity drugs should be conditional on seeking reimbursement for essential treatments.