Health life expectancy in Korea based on sample cohort database of National Health Insurance Services

Abstract

This paper estimates the health life expectancies for Korean people based on a sample cohort database collected through objective measurements by the National Health Insurance Service. Health life expectancy is estimated using the single-state approach of Sullivan (1971). The 9-order correction factor method of Greville (1945) and Brass-logit model of Brass (1971) are also adopted for unobserved or incompletely observed age-specific morbidity and mortality. Based on the mortality and morbidity estimated from sample cohort DB, men and women in Korea are expected to live a 'healthy life' for 61 and 60 years in 2013, respectively, whereas life expectancies of men and women are 80 and 87, respectively. We also estimate certain disease-free life expectancies for each of genders, income levels, and types of insurance from 2003 to 2013 in Korea. We found that there exists an inequality of healthy life expectancy in Korea for different genders, income levels, and types of insurance.