Cataract Surgery Cost Calculator

Cataract Surgery Cost Calculator helps estimate Korea-related eye treatment, surgery, injection, support, and recovery-cost scenarios in English.

Cataract surgery inputs

Cataract cost and reimbursement

Final practical cost

₩6,217,500

After modeled indemnity and tax credit.

Before insurance or tax

₩7,450,000

Patient-paid amount before reimbursements.

Private insurance estimate

₩400,000

Uses the Korean indemnity-generation formula.

Tax credit estimate

₩832,500

Medical expense credit after the 3% salary threshold.

Cost range

₩5,284,875 - ₩7,461,000

Low and high estimate from the source model.

Applied NHI copay

20%

Covered-care patient copay rate.

Premium lens cost

₩6,720,000

Non-covered IOL portion.

Insured self-pay

₩520,000

Covered cataract surgery copay.

After private insurance, before tax

₩7,050,000

This is the amount used for the medical expense tax-credit calculation.

The Korean model preserves the post-2022 private-insurance issue for premium cataract lenses: many multifocal IOL claims are treated as outpatient care and capped per visit unless inpatient medical necessity is recognized.

Related calculators

Cataract surgery and intraocular lens cost calculator

This page translates the Korean cataract-surgery cost guide and preserves the same covered surgery fee, premium lens ranges, NHI copay categories, indemnity generation caps, and tax-credit assumptions.

Covered surgery and lens choices

The Korean page notes that cataract surgery is one of the most common operations in Korea, with more than 700,000 operations per year. The covered cataract operation is modeled from the same surgery-fee base, while the patient cost changes sharply depending on whether the lens is monofocal or premium.

Monofocal lenses are treated as covered lenses. Premium lens choices are added separately: toric lenses at KRW 400,000 to KRW 1,000,000 per eye, extended-depth-of-focus lenses at KRW 1,500,000 to KRW 3,000,000, multifocal lenses at KRW 2,000,000 to KRW 3,500,000, trifocal lenses at KRW 2,500,000 to KRW 4,000,000, and trifocal toric lenses at KRW 3,000,000 to KRW 4,800,000.

NHI copay and indemnity caps

The source applies outpatient NHI copays of 30 percent at clinics, 40 percent at hospitals, 50 percent at general hospitals, and 60 percent at tertiary hospitals. Inpatient cataract surgery is modeled at a 20 percent NHI copay. Low-income patients use 14 percent, and medical aid uses 10 percent.

The Korean guide also reflects the 2022 Supreme Court dispute over whether premium cataract-lens surgery should be handled as outpatient care unless true inpatient necessity is documented. The indemnity caps are preserved as KRW 300,000 for generation 1 and KRW 250,000 for generations 2 and 3. Generation 4 uses a KRW 200,000 cataract cap in this model.

What the calculator includes

The calculator keeps the same variables as the Korean page: one eye or both eyes, lens type, outpatient versus inpatient care, institution level, region, insurance type, indemnity generation, premium examination, and annual salary for medical expense tax credit.

Premium lenses can reduce dependence on glasses, but the Korean source warns that halos, glare, night-driving discomfort, and dry-eye symptoms should be reviewed before choosing the most expensive lens.