Patients and health professionals have been urging the NHI to include more new drugs and new health technology into the Benefit Scheme.   Dr Lee Po Chang, the Director General of the NHIA, expressed that the NHIA in Taiwan, like many of its counterparts in other countries, has to tackle the financial problem within the healthcare system.  The NHIA tried to alleviate the situation through adjusting the co-payment, raising the ceiling of the NHI tariff, reviewing the rights and duties of Taiwanese expatriates, etc., hoping to use the resources more efficiently and, therefore, sustain the NHI. 

Hung Yu-Chi, an official of the NHIA, said that the NHI Global Budget grows steadily by 3%-5% every year; therefore, the NHIA has to control the growth of the health expenditure, taking into account of the public’s ability to pay, the general economic situation, the NHI income and  spending, etc. 

This year, the NHIA, for the first time, set the budget for new drugs by using horizon scanning instead of basing on a fixed substitution rate.  The NHIA set the budget by referring to the information submitted by manufacturers on their new product launch plans and the financial impact forecast, as well as the maximum growth rate set by the Executive Yuan.  The NHIA hopes this new method would reduce the gap between the forecast and the actual spending.

New drugs with excellent efficacy, safety, convenience or designed for children could receive a maximum price mark-up of 15%.  A 10% mark-up is available for products having conducted clinical trials of a certain scale in Taiwan and for products with results of pharmacoeconomic studies in Taiwan.  To encourage more new drugs to enter into Taiwan, the NHIA will give preferential prices to products with significant clinical values (e.g. better efficacy, reduced adverse reactions, reduced drug resistance, etc.) which chose Taiwan as the country for the first worldwide launch. 

【2022-03-31 / United Daily】