Searches for "am I due a check-up this year" pile up in November and December. The notice arrives, the wording is short, and it does not say how many screenings you can actually have. This pulls the eligibility test out of the statute.
1. Age is the year minus your birth year, not your age in full years. In 2026, anyone born in 1986 is 40.
2. Lung screening has an upper age too — 54 to 74. The other five have only a floor.
3. Non-desk employees are screened every year, not every two (Decree art. 25(1)).
4. The odd/even birth-year split is not in the statute. The Decree says only "once every two years or more".
Enter a birth year, how you are insured and any smoking history, and it names what you can have this year.
It follows the statute and the NHIS guidance. General screening covers "employees, regional subscribers who head a household, and regional subscribers and dependants aged 20 or over" (Act art. 52(2)1), once every two years or more, except that employees not in desk work are screened once a year (Decree art. 25(1)). The six cancer screenings come from art. 8 and table 1 of the Cancer Act Decree: stomach from 40 every 2 years, colorectal from 50 every year, liver from 40 for the risk group every 6 months, breast from 40 for women every 2 years, cervical from 20 for women every 2 years, and lung between 54 and 74 for the risk group every 2 years. Age is counted as the year minus your birth year. Those on the rare-disease co-payment scheme for a given cancer are deferred from that screening (they may opt back in), and the fund pays 90% with 10% from you, except that colorectal and cervical are fully funded and the lowest 50% by premium and medical aid recipients pay nothing. Infant, student and life-transition screenings, and the "within 15 years of quitting" branch of the lung risk group, are not included. An estimate — confirm on the NHIS eligibility lookup.
Four groups — and the age floor sits on only two
Article 52(2)1 of the National Health Insurance Act lists the four:
1. General health screening: employees, regional subscribers who head a household, regional subscribers aged 20 or over, and dependants aged 20 or over
"Aged 20 or over" attaches to the last two only. Employees and regional subscribers who head a household face no age limit — a nineteen-year-old who works, or heads a household, is covered.
The interval is in Decree art. 25(1): "screening shall be carried out once every two years or more, except that for employees not engaged in desk work it shall be once a year."
There is one exception only. Not age, not medical history — whether the work is desk work.
Six cancers, and the intervals differ
Article 8(1) of the Cancer Act Decree names stomach, liver, colorectal, breast, cervical and lung, and paragraph (2) hands the intervals and ages to table 1.
| Cancer | Who · how often · how |
|---|---|
| Stomach | 40 and over every 2 years · endoscopy |
| Colorectal fully funded | 50 and over every 1 year · FOBT, then colonoscopy if positive |
| Liver | 40 and over, risk group every 6 months · ultrasound + AFP blood test |
| Breast | 40 and over, women every 2 years · mammography |
| Cervical fully funded | 20 and over, women every 2 years · cervical cytology |
| Lung | 54 to 74, risk group every 2 years · low-dose chest CT |
| Cancer Act Decree art. 8 and table 1. Age is 2026 minus the birth year — 40 means born in 1986, 50 in 1976, 54 in 1972, 74 in 1952. | |
Screenings stack up with age: cervical at 20 for women, stomach at 40 and breast at 40 for women, colorectal at 50, lung at 54 for the risk group. And at 75 lung drops out again.
Remember only "from 40" and you miss lung. Five have a floor alone; lung has both a floor and a ceiling — 54 to 74. At 75, thirty pack-years no longer qualify you.
From six months to two years
Only liver is twice a year — once in each half. Colorectal is annual, the other four run on two years, and general screening is annual only for non-desk employees.
The lung threshold — thirty pack-years is a product
The NHIS questionnaire defines a pack-year:
Pack-years = packs per day (1 pack = 20 cigarettes) × years smoked
So half a pack for 60 years, a pack for 30, or two packs for 15 all come to 30 pack-years. You must also be a current smoker; if you have quit, it holds only for past screenees, within 15 years of quitting and up to 74.
The liver risk group is not something you count yourself. The fund reads it from your benefit records over the preceding two years — cirrhosis, hepatitis B or C and related chronic liver disease — or from a positive hepatitis B surface antigen or C antibody on an earlier general screening.
Questions that remain
Where is the odd/even birth-year rule written?
It is not in the statute. Decree art. 25(1) says only "once every two years or more", and the NHIS procedure page goes no further than "once every two years, annually for non-desk staff". The odd/even split is how that two-year cycle is run. So whether this is your year has to be checked on the NHIS eligibility lookup — this calculator names which screenings you can be eligible for.
What does it cost?
Cancer screening is 90% from the fund, 10% from you. But colorectal and cervical are fully funded, and the lowest 50% by last November's premium and medical aid recipients pay nothing. General screening is free.
What if I am already being treated for that cancer?
Those on the rare-disease co-payment scheme are deferred from that screening, though they may opt back in. Colorectal differs slightly: a colonoscopy within the past five years defers you.
What if I miss the deadline?
The window runs to 31 March of the following year — which is why December is busy. There is no penalty on you; the separate fine under occupational safety law falls on the employer when staff go unscreened.
What does this calculator leave out?
Infant screening (under 6), student screening, the medical-aid life-transition screening, the "within 15 years of quitting" branch of the lung risk group, the deferrals above, and the odd/even assignment.
Sources
National Health Insurance Act [in force 2 January 2026] art. 52 — the types and who is covered.
Enforcement Decree of the same Act [19 February 2026] art. 25 — "once every two years or more; once a year for non-desk employees".
Enforcement Decree of the Cancer Control Act [2 January 2026] art. 8 and table 1 — the six cancers, their intervals and ages.
Table 1 would not open on the Korean Law Information Center. Three routes — the direct address, the viewer function, and the content endpoint — all returned an empty document. So the same table was read from the NHIS screening guidance and from the National Cancer Information Center run by the National Cancer Center, both primary and both saying the same thing. What could not be opened is recorded as not opened.
The script was checked against the same model across 4,160 combinations — 13 birth years x 2 sexes x 4 insurance types x 2 liver-risk states x 4 daily amounts x 5 smoking durations, all matching, with the six age thresholds and the 30 pack-years line tested one year and one pack-year either side.
Where to check
What the screening covers and how to read the result is in the national screening guide, and the liver and kidney numbers on the result sheet are covered in reading those figures. For your actual eligibility, use the NHIS eligibility lookup.
