The National Health Insurance Committee (NHIC) held a meeting on Nov. 26 today to discuss adjustments to the National Health Insurance premium rate for 2022, which resulted in two premium rate proposals. The proposals call for the NHI premium rate to either be maintained at the current 5.17 percent or increased to a range between 5.22 percent and 5.32 percent, which shall be submitted for the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s final decision and approved by the Executive Yuan.

According to the estimates, if the current 5.17 percent NHI premium rate is maintained, under the 2.577 percent growth rate for the 2022 NHI global budget proposed by representatives of payers and the 4.233 percent growth rate proposed by representatives of health care providers that was decided following negotiations in September, the NHI safety reserve is projected to fall below the legally required threshold equivalent to at least one month of expenditures, to a respective 0.91 month and 0.69 month of expenditures.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said that he will take into consideration the overall situation when deciding between the two proposals, adding that while he is leaning towards maintaining the current rate, he is open to opinions. Minister Chen said that he does not wish to raise the NHI premium rate as a mean to balance NHI finances. Instead, Minister Chen is hoping to curb wastage by reforming co-payments and coverage policies for overseas citizens under the user-pays principle. These measures will not only reduce inefficiencies in the utilization of NHI resources and will also help balance NHI finances. While the objective is still to maintain the reserve fund at one month of NHI’s expenditure, the trade-off of the planned measures requires further analysis and deliberation.

Chen Shih-chung said that he intends to keep the government’s promise to maintain the current NHI premium for the next two years, which should not be taken lightly. However, he believes that other options can be explored, noting that the proposed reforms to the copayment system could see slight adjustments.

[2021-11-19/United Daily News]