자동차보험의 법적성격과 권리구제 개선방안

Abstract

As social security in modern society has rapidly evolved and changed, different areas of social security have become segmented and specialized. The specialization and segmentation of social security programs can result in a number of disputes, big or small, over the distribution of benefits, leading to an increased need for national remedies in the area of social insurance. In 1963, the Automobile Accident Compensation Security Act(hereinafter "AACSA") was enacted to protect car accident victims and, in 1983, the Special Act for Traffic Accident Treatment was enacted. Since then, cars have been part and parcel of our daily lives. This study examines the legal nature of automobile insurance in connection with the AACSA and whether there are any problems in terms of the protection of people’s and victims’ rights. Since the legislative grounds for the AACSA are closely related to social security programs, including the protection of car accident victims against offenders, automobile liability insurance can be deemed to be public as a sort of social insurance. However, despite its nature of social insurance, under the current contradictory system, the legal mandate forces people to purchase car insurance run by private insurance companies, raising the following fundamental problems, especially the lack of remedies. Firstly, no appeal procedure is in place for health care organizations in connection with medical fees in automobile insurance. Secondly, no legal protection is provided to protect the rights of car accident victims. Though a few programs are in place to provide remedies for car accident victims, there is no legal protection that allows the victims to seek legal remedies through an appeal procedure. Since automobile insurance plays a role as social insurance, legal remedies should be in place to protect people’s legal rights. The nature of automobile insurance should be clearly established as public insurance whose purchase is a legal mandate, and amendments should be also made to the AACSA, such as new remedy provisions to provide protection against infringement arising out of insurance management. Furthermore, the government should provide assistance in the form of civil rights protection programs and grants, including the formation of the automobile insurance dispute arbitration center responsible for performing the aforementioned activities.