The Legislative Yuan on July 17 passed a resolution requesting the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) to ensure that the National Health Insurance (NHI) medical points equate to at least NT$ 0.95 per point by June 2025, in lieu of revising the National Health Insurance Act. While the resulting resolution is likely to be “less” binding, it addresses concerns that legislation will lead to mandatory increases to NHI premium rates.

In response, MOHW Deputy Minister Lin Ching-yi said that an additional NT$70 billion in expenditures will be required to ensure that the NHI medical points have a minimum value of NT$0.95 by June 2025. To fill the funding gap, the MOHW is mulling to remove items on the NHI fee schedule that are not treatment for diseases from the global budget and seek additional allocations from the general government budget. She noted that more details will become available after the legislature approves the central government budget for 2026.

The Legislative Yuan on July 17 also passed four other incidental resolutions calling for the following:

1. The Executive Yuan should convene cross-ministry meetings on healthcare reform and formulate solutions and implementation timelines.
2. The MOHW should formulate regulations to ensure that reforms to the medical points valuation rules lead to wage growth for health professionals.
3. Authorities should adjust the drug pricing mechanism to achieve reasonable drug pricing within one year.
4. The MOHW should formulate a plan and timeline within three months to delist instruction drugs from the NHI fee schedule.

[2024-7-17/United Daily News]