Yoon vetoes nursing act

May 17, 2023, 09:30 am

		0
President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 16, 2023./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

President Yoon Suk-yeol vetoed the opposition-led Nursing Act Tuesday, saying that the bill has created excessive conflict among medical professionals.

This marked Yoon’s second veto since taking office, after he rejected a revision to the Grain Management Act last month, which required the government to purchase surplus rice.

“It is very regrettable that such social conflict was not properly resolved through sufficient consultations between different medical professions and sufficient deliberation by the National Assembly,” Yoon said at a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office in Seoul.

The president said people’s health cannot be exchanged for anything, such as politics, foreign policy, and economic policy. “The move to separate nursing services from medical institutions is causing people to feel anxious about their health,” he said.

Yoon stressed that the exercise of the veto was inevitable considering concerns over the expansion of conflict and national health rights.

As Yoon exercised his veto, the nursing act was handed over to the National Assembly again. The majority of the incumbent Assembly members should attend and more than two-thirds of the members are required to vote in favor of the bill that the president called on the National Assembly for reconsideration. Due to the distribution of seats in the National Assembly, the bill has been virtually abolished.

Earlier, the government’s ruling party said, “The nursing act is taking the lives of the people as hostage and the damage is on the people.” The Ministry of Health and Welfare, a key related ministry, submitted an opinion to President Yoon, saying, “If the Nursing Act is implemented, the medical system itself will be shaken.”

The Korean Nurses Association issued a statement condemning the government and denouncing the move. The association announced its collective action against the decision.

#Yoon Suk-yeol #nursing act #veto