The battleground between those for medical insurance unification and those against it has encompassed 3 policy debates. The first debate focuses on the reduction of income inequality between rich and poor. Those for unification insist that unification will reduce the income disparities that exist between industrial employees and the self-employed. Those for decentralization argue that unification will result in transferring insurance premiums paid by industrial employers and their employees to the selfemployed, whose premiums are inadequate to cover their expenses. While those for unification argue that unification will help create a spirit of solidarity among all classes of workers, resembling the foundation of the Western welfare state, those for decentralization believe that unification scheme will result in a "Korean unique case," organizationally incompatible with the decentralized administrative model of NHI developed by the Japanese, French, and Germans.