PPP lawmaker warns workers may pay 72% of wages in health, pension premiums in 40 years

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Sang-hoon on Wednesday criticized the Lee Jae Myung government's welfare fiscal policy, warning that based on the government's long-term fiscal projections, the average worker four decades from now would have to spend 72 percent of their wages on national health insurance and national pension premiums alone, excluding taxes.

Ahn made the remarks at a policy seminar he hosted at the National Assembly titled "Tasks for the Transition to Sustainable Welfare Capitalism."

"Following five years of the Moon Jae-in administration, during which national debt grew by more than 400 trillion won ($289 billion), the Lee Jae Myung government is continuing one-off cash handouts and fiscal populism while saying nothing about the burden of taxes and insurance premiums," Ahn said. "If this continues, an enormous fiscal dystopia could unfold for future generations. We must begin structural reform of welfare and fiscal policy now, so as not to pass the burden on to those who come after us."

Fellow lawmakers at the seminar echoed his concerns. PPP lawmaker Kim Ki-hyun said, "Since welfare, once expanded, is nearly impossible to roll back, politicians must make a decisive choice and properly inform the public of the true state of the nation's finances."

PPP lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon said fiscal populism and indiscriminate spending policies were making the allocation of resources for future generations increasingly uncertain. "With expenditures rising and the tax base weakening, we need an integrated long-term fiscal outlook that encompasses all social insurance programs, including the national pension and national health insurance," he said.

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon stressed the importance of political "priorities." "If money were unlimited, politics would be unnecessary — ultimately, politics is the art of setting priorities," Han said. "The most important criterion for setting those priorities is sustainability."

Experts at the seminar also called for generational considerations to be built into policy direction. Park Myung-ho, a professor of economics at Hongik University, said the concept of sustainable welfare must be reframed through the lens of intergenerational justice.

Lee Chae-jeong, an associate research fellow at the National Assembly Futures Institute's Population Center, said long-term fiscal projections should be refined to reflect the interplay of demographic, economic and fiscal variables.

Sung Hye-young, a research fellow at the National Pension Research Institute's pension system research division, presented pension reform cases from major countries and argued that intergenerational solidarity must evolve beyond younger generations supporting older ones — to a model where older generations also consider the burdens placed on those who follow.