The Legislative Yuan's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee during a meeting on October 12 reviewed the 2024 budget of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHOW), during which National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director General Shih Chung-liang provided an update on ongoing discussions to improving patients’access to commercial health insurance products and expanding reimbursement of new drugs, which have been among the main concerns of legislators from across the party lines.

The NHIA Director General Shih said that the NHIA has begun compiling input from patient groups and holding regular discussions with the Financial Supervisory Commission's Insurance Bureau, agreeing on the following objectives:

1. Private insurers should be advised to re-design existing policies to cover outpatient treatments.
2. Private insurers should be advised to provide new policies to patients diagnosed with early-stage caner, given the improved efficacy of treatments.
3. Private insurers should be advised to provide accessibly priced policies by leveraging administrative cost savings enabled by the National Health Insurance (NHI).

Regarding the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF), the MHOW's current plan is to seek funding from both the NHI global budget and the central government budget. Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan also said legal obstacles could be avoided by including the CDF under the NHI system, which will benefit both patients with cancer, rare disorders, and other conditions.

[2023-10-12/Liberty Times]