Following a 12-hour meeting on Sept. 21, some of the National Health Insurance Committee (NHIC) representatives, including those representing Traditional Chinese medicine and dentistry, were able to reach a consensus on their respective earmarks from the 2023 National Health Insurance (NHI) global budget. However, due to lingering disagreements between Western medicine and payers’ representatives, two proposals will be submitted for Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan’s final decision.

Payers’ representative Wu Hung-lai, who also chairs the Taiwan Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, said that relative to the overall growth rate of the global budget, spending on Traditional Chinese medicine has grown markedly compared to the modest increase for dentistry. However, there remains significant differences between the expectation of Western medicine and payers representatives. According to Wu, the growth rate proposed by Western medicine will push the 2023 National Health Insurance global budget to the brink of the approved 4.5-percent upper growth parameter and compel the necessity to raise NHI premiums. As Minister Hsueh has already indicated that he does not intend to raise NHI premiums in 2023, increases in spending will need to be kept in check.

Chairperson Wu said that the mood of the latest round of NHIC meeting was amicable, and the global budget growth rate will not be finalized until the actuarial calculations are completed by Ministry of Health and Welfare officials, set to be due Friday. Minister Hsueh is expected to announce his final decision on the NHI global budget towards the end of December or next January. NHIC members also expressed a high level of interest in how the NHI safety reserves will be calculated.

[2022-9-21/United Daily News]