President Yoon Suk Yeol has announced a temporary plan to increase physicians' fees for the next two weeks in response to the crisis in short-staffed emergency rooms in South Korean hospitals, which is expected to worsen during the Chuseok holiday in mid-September. During this period, fees for emergency room doctors will be temporarily raised to 3.5 times their current amount, supported by the nation's universal single-payer health care system. The temporary fee hikes, effective from September 11 to 25, are accompanied by a nationwide alert on emergency room operations to ensure patients' access to emergency medical services, with the government allocating 28.5 billion won to cover the cost of emergency room operations during this period. President Yoon also mentioned that a larger number of hospitals have voluntarily offered to provide emergency medical services during the alert period, and he pledged to deploy military doctors, public health doctors, and physician's assistants to alleviate the strain on existing medical workers. Additionally, the government plans to allocate a contingency state budget to add 400 health care workers nationwide for the next two weeks, with the Finance Minister revealing a plan to inject 3.7 billion won for additional emergency room health care workers. This comes amid concerns about a medical crisis, as overcrowded emergency rooms face challenges due to medical workers' exhaustion and mass resignations. The Yoon administration has also outlined plans to increase the wage of physicians in essential health care sectors, including injecting a state budget of 10 trillion won to offer higher rewards for physicians dedicated to essential health care.