공감은 국민건강보험에 대한 세대 간 태도 차이를 매개하는가? (Does Empathy Mediate Consumer Attitude Toward the National Health Insurance of Korea?)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 25권 / 2호 / 119 ~ 141페이지
· 저자명 : 양혜경, 옥경영, 박기완, 주소현

초록

본 연구는 현재 우리 사회에 가시화되고 있는 분야별 세대 갈등의 해결방안을 모색하기 위한 기초적 연구로서 재정 부담과 수혜의 측면에서 세대 간 이해차이가 뚜렷한 국민건강보험에서의 세대 간 태도 차이를 파악하고, 공감의 친사회적 효과 및 갈등해소 효과에 주목하여 세대 갈등을 해소하는 공감의 역할을 탐색하고자 하였다. 전국의 성인을 대상으로 설문 조사하여 출생연도를 기준으로 세대를 구분하여 분석한 결과, 공감의 정서적 측면인 공감적 관심도는 연령이 증가함에 따라 높아졌고 건강보험에 대해서는 모든 세대에서 세대 간 소득 재분배가 적정하지 않고 후속 세대의 부담이 크다고 보는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 모든 세대에서 국민건강보험이 노후에 도움이 된다는 인식을 가지고 있으나 정도에 차이가 있었는데 대체적으로 연령이 높아질수록 국민건강보험이 본인 및 현재 노인 세대, 후속 세대의 노후에 도움이 된다고 보는 인식이 강했다. 관련 요인들을 통제한 후에도 공감 수준에 대한 세대 효과는 유의하였다. 또한 건강보험에 대한 각각의 태도와 관련된 기타 요인들을 통제한 후에도 건강보험에 대한 세대 간 태도 차이는 여전히 존재하고 공감 수준이 높아질수록 국민건강보험에 대한 태도도 긍정적이었다. 연령과 태도 간의 공감의 매개효과를 살펴본 결과 정서적 공감이 연령과 국민건강보험에 대한 하위태도 중 일부를 매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과로 세대 갈등을 완화하는데 다른 세대에 대한 신뢰와 공감이 주요한 역할을 담당할 것이라는 것을 유추할 수 있으며, 사회 통합을 위한 방안 마련에 시사점을 제공한다.

영어초록

This paper studies the attitudes of different generations toward the National Health Insurance of Korea(NHI). We focus on empathy and explore whether empathy reduces the generation gap in attitudes toward the NHI.
Because of the aging of the population, spending on the NHI is expected to increase. In 2012, NHI spending on those above 65 years old was 34.4% of total NHI spending, while average monthly spending for this age group was 3.2 times more than the average NHI beneficiary. As the elderly are receiving a disproportionately large amount of the benefits, more burden is imposed on younger generations, which can result in the younger generations having an unfavorable attitude toward the NHI spending.
As empathy generates positive attitude toward others, it can potentially also resolve conflicts. We seek to find out whether the level of empathy matters on the attitude towards the NHI. If attitudes toward the NHI are different by generations, we hypothesize that empathy may affect the difference in the attitude towards the NHI.
We survey 910 adults aged between 20 to 65 living in five major cities in Korea. We classify respondents into five cohorts based on their birth years. The Korean baby-boomers are currently in their 50s. The cohort older than the baby-boomers in our data are in their 60s and experienced the Korean war. The younger cohorts are in their 40s, 30s, and 20s, respectively. All the cohorts are unique in terms of characteristics and their social experiences. We measure empathy using Davis(1980)’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Attitudes toward the NHI are measured by the following questions on five-point Likert scales, to which the participants are asked to respond: 1) Do you think the younger generations bear more burden that older generations in contributing towards the NHI, 2) Do you think the NHI will be helpful when you are old, 3) Do you think the NHI is helpful currently to old people, 4) Do you think the NHI will be helpful for those in their 20s and below when they become old.
All the cohorts view that the NHI imposes more burden on the younger generations. As people become older, they are more likely to agree that the NHI is helpful for themselves and all generations. Even after controlling for other factors, the difference in attitudes among cohorts still remains with older people viewing the NHI as helpful to themselves and all generations.
The level of empathic concern, an emotional aspect of empathy, becomes higher as age increases. Even after controlling for other related factors on empathy, older people are more empathetic than younger people. More people in their 60s and 20s view old people as trustworthy. Empathy has a positive effect on attitudes toward the NHI, even after controlling for the cohorts and other factors. Most importantly, empathic concern partially mediates the relationship between age and attitude. That is, as one becomes older, the relationship between empathic concern and positive attitude towards the NHI becomes stronger.
Based on our results, we conclude that the difference in attitudes toward the NHI is affected by age-based cohort effect. Our results imply that empathy mediates generational conflict between the older and younger generations in their attitude towards the NHI, and that we should consider promoting intergenerational empathy to resolve intergenerational conflicts.

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