The National Health Insurance’s (NHI) safety reserves is expected to dip below 1.5 months’ expenditures next year, which will trigger legally required premium adjustments. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung was invited to deliver a speech yesterday at the annual meeting of the Taipei Doctors Union. When discussing the NHI’s increases, Minister Chen said that that the NHI must consider the system’s mechanism in balancing income and expenditure and that the system’s income must be increased to meet rising expenditure.

Criticisms have been laid against the public’s penchant to seek medical consultation frequently, however, Minister Chen does not agree to such claims. He said that it is difficult to determine the appropriate frequency in which patients should seek medical attention. “My idea is simple, in that ensuring ready access to medical resources for the public is beneficial for Taiwan,” Minister Chen said.

Medical professionals have also said that the NHI’s copayments must be reviewed, with some advocating to raise copayments. Regarding those sentiments, Minister Chen said bluntly that if copayments are increased, disadvantaged groups’ right to access health care could be compromised, adding that he has misgivings about whether higher copayments will be effective in curbing Taiwan’s rapidly rising medical expenditure. “Preventing disadvantaged groups from accessing health care is not an outcome we’d like to see and is against the system’s spirit which was originally designed as a form of social insurance,” Minister Chen said. He said that whether it is appropriate to raise a small portion of copayments is a worthy subject for further study but warned of potential crowding effects if copayments are raised excessively.

Minister Chen also said that in the future, the NHI will be reformed to provide more reimbursements for diagnosis rather than treatment. Minister Chen said that physicians’ diagnoses represent the first line of defense against epidemics. “We will only face more and more threats from emerging infectious diseases, which could be remedied by frequent medical consultations and early detection. The more often the public goes to the doctor, the sooner public health alerts can be raised for better containment,” Minister Chen said.

[2020-10-25/Liberty Times]