A survey conducted by a patient group found that nearly 60 percent of cancer patients are struggling with being able to afford the steep out-of-pocket for the drugs they need, raising expectations for the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) to help address patients' immediate needs. In response, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) proposed solutions to address the challenges of new drug reimbursement, including initiating parallel review of drugs beginning Jan. 1, 2024 to shorten the time required for listing on the National Health Insurance fee schedule to six months; increasing the new drug budget; establishing the Center for Health Policy and Technology Assessment (CHPTA) to conduct parallel review of new drugs; promoting conditional listing reimbursement; and advancing health technology reassessment.

NHIA Deputy Director General Tsai Shu-ling said that while the NHIA is positive towards presidential candidates' proposals to establish a NT$10 billion CDF, however, the endeavor requires legislative amendments and sufficient National Health Insurance (NHI) budget to continue to reimburse the new drugs after their conditional listing under the CDF lapses.

Regarding recent progress on complementing the NHI with private insurance, NHIA Deputy Director General Tsai said that the NHIA has continued to identify bottlenecks in ongoing talks with the Financial Supervisory Commission. Currently, the NHIA is planning to establish a “second layer” for the NHI and has commissioned the National Health Research Institutes Forum to invite financial scholars, private insurers, and other experts for research discussions to explore the feasibility of designing a model to foster collaboration between NHI and private insurers, to better protect the health of the public.

[2024-1-10/United Daily News]