The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said Thursday that it will decide the details of its first compensation suit against KT&G and other tobacco companies at a board meeting, Jan. 24.
“The board will decide when to file the suit and how much it will seek in damages. If details are approved, the filing can take place as early as a day after the meeting,” an official at the NHIS said.
With the move, the insurance body’s legal action against local tobacco makers and foreign cigarette companies selling products here is expected to take place earlier than expected.
Last month, NHIS President Kim Jong-dae said, “The NHIS will file a suit against tobacco companies to recover medical costs which it has incurred due to smoking-related diseases. Tobacco makers should be responsible for health insurance payments for smoke-related diseases, which stood at 1.69 trillion won in 2009.”
A lawyer for the NHIS, Ahn Sun-young, said, “The chances of winning the suit are higher than those of individual legal action against giant cigarette makers because the NHIS has many experts, an organized team and a lot of data that support the companies’ liability.”
There are three tobacco-related compensation suits pending in the Supreme Court and a high court. All were filed by individuals and lower courts ruled in favor of the cigarette-makers.
Ahn said that the suit itself is significant, regardless of who wins in court. “Because it serves as an opportunity to make the public consider whether tobacco is the direct cause of some cancers, or it just has a connection to such diseases,” she said.
KT&G, the nation’s largest tobacco-maker, showed confidence in the potential case against it. “In order to exert its right to seek compensation, the NHIS has to prove tobacco companies are responsible for smokers’ diseases,“ said an official at the company, reiterating the company’s stance that it will react the same as in the earlier suits.
The 14-member board is comprised of five NHIS officials, six civic organization members and three government officials. The NHIS can file the suit if more than half of them agree with it. A number of civic organizations, including the Consumers Union of Korea, showed their support for the insurance body’s move.
The current legal basis for the NHIS’s right to claim compensation comes from the National Insurance Act. It stipulates that the NHIS can seek compensation from external parties for expenses caused by them.
