Hanwha General Insurance said Monday it has secured six months of exclusive rights from the General Insurance Association of Korea for a newly developed coverage benefit that pays for precocious puberty diagnostic tests.
The coverage was developed in response to growing customer demand for children's growth-related medical testing.
According to the Korea Health Technology Assessment Research Institute, the number of patients prescribed precocious puberty suppression injections rose roughly 1.5 times — from 120,988 in 2020 to 179,840 in 2024. Over the same period, the number of prescriptions climbed from 561,119 to 800,746, while total claim amounts increased from 81.8 billion won ($57.7 million) to 119.9 billion won.
Hanwha General Insurance said it has been continuously developing differentiated products to meet this demand, and has now incorporated a total of six exclusively licensed coverage benefits into its children's insurance lineup. The new benefit covers one government-reimbursed diagnostic test per year — specifically the GnRH stimulation test used to diagnose precocious puberty and related conditions.
Alongside this, the company launched a new product called Hanwha Health Boost Children's Insurance, which allows customers to add the new benefit as a rider. In addition to the precocious puberty test coverage, the product includes new benefits designed to support children's healthy development: treatment costs for pediatric growth hormone deficiency, support costs for the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, treatment costs for supernumerary tooth extraction, and a hearing loss diagnosis benefit excluding age-related hearing loss.
The product also offers a pre-care service that provides one free test from a menu of five options — a growth factor test, an allergy test, an oral bacteria analysis, an intestinal microbiome test and an AI-based developmental drawing assessment — to help monitor children's health proactively.
"We have strengthened the competitiveness of our children's insurance by incorporating new coverage and services that reflect parents' concerns for their children," a Hanwha General Insurance official said. "We will continue to roll out tailored products spanning prenatal coverage through childhood and on to the parents' generation, backed by differentiated protection solutions."
psj@heraldcorp.com
