The NHI Board announced that the negotiations on next year's NHI global budget have broken down.  There is a significant gap of NT$8.6 billion between the proposals put forward by fee payers and service providers.  Dr. Hung Tzu-Jen, President of the Taiwan College of Healthcare Executive stated that, after the pandemic, many countries began increasing the investment in healthcare.  He suggested that Taiwan should also raise the growth rate of the NHI global budget so as to keep up with Japan and South Korea. Despite the calls for increasing health investment, the fee payers and service providers still failed to reach consensus.  Dr. Hung claimed that the result clearly indicates that the fee payers fail to prioritize pubic healthcare. 

It is a social consensus and an international trend to consider healthcare expenditure as an investment rather than mere spending.  However, the negotiation result clearly reveals the fee payers' attitudes.  For them, healthcare is associated with “cost” not “value”.  The gap in healthcare quality and health indices between Taiwan and international standards will continue to widen, said Dr. Hung.

Prof. Chang Hong-Jen, former Director-General of the NHIA, expressed that the NHI global budget is significantly insufficient.  Even with the difference in the billions, it remains inadequate to sustain the NHI. He mentioned that if he were present, he would have walked out of the negotiation meeting as a protest against the fee payers' reluctance to increase the global budget.

Prof. Chang expressed that the NHI Board members should not be blamed for the low growth rate of the NHI budget because it is constrained by an upper limit set by the Executive Yuan.  “The Executive Yuan needs to reflect on the fact that Taiwan's average life expectancy is already lower than that of South Korea, and contemplate why there is such limited investment in health," said Prof. Chang.

Ms. Teng Xi-Hua, the spokesperson of the NHI Supervision Alliance, participated in the negotiations as an impartial relevant person representative.  She pointed out that the negotiation puts fee payers and service providers in a confrontational situation which has been created by the government.  Ms. Teng believes that the government should take responsibility for resolving this dilemma.

Ms. Teng pointed that the government has been ignoring the NHI financial problems. Consequently, healthcare providers do not have sufficient resources to provide services, while fee payers lack the capacity to fund the services.  She urges the MOHW Minister to allocate more general budget funds to support the NHI.

【2023-09-23 / United Daily News】