Seoul, July 18 (EFE).- South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday said that same-sex couples were entitled to the same health insurance rights as heterosexual couples in a landmark ruling in the Asian country.
All 14 justices of the court upheld a ruling issued by the Seoul High Court in 2023 recognizing that same-sex couples had the right to register their spouse as a dependent on their employer-based health insurance, just like in heterosexual marriages.
This is a landmark ruling in South Korea, which does not recognize same-sex marriage.
In February 2021, So Seong-wook filed a lawsuit against the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), which had initially granted him coverage as a dependent under his partner Kim Yong-min’s public health insurance plan.
However, eight months later, the NHIS ordered So to pay insurance premiums saying he was not eligible to be a dependent of his partner.
In 2022, a district court in Seoul ruled against So, who filed an appeal in the Seoul High Court, which overturned the lower court’s ruling early last year, when the NHIS decided to take the case to the country’s top court.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that excluding same-sex spouses from receiving state health insurance was «an act of discrimination that violates the dignity and values of a human being, the right to pursue happiness, the right to privacy and the right to be treated equally before the law.»
So and Kim held a wedding ceremony in 2019 and have lived together since, but South Korea does not recognize their union as a marriage. EFE
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