This structural problem derives from 3 interrelated weaknesses in the Korean health care system. First medical specialists make up more than 80% of practicing medical doctors in Korea. In addition, one fourth of Korean medical doctors have 2 or more specialties. In most Western industrialized countries, medical specialists constitute no more than 50% of all practicing physicians. Korean medical care costs have escalated because medical specialists generate hightech, expensive tests and treatments in highly commercialized university hospitals. This, in turn, has exacerbated the financial deficit of NHI. The Korean government has developed no policy tools with which to discourage Korean medical doctors from becoming specialists