During the inaugural meeting of Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee presided over by President William Lai on August 22, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan presented the vision of the Healthy Taiwan initiative, while National Health Insurance and Administration (NHIA) Director General Shih Chung-liang outlined key reforms to optimize and enhance the sustainability of the National Health Insurance (NHI), covering NHI finances, strengthening chronic diseases care, expanding healthcare services, and reforming drug policies.

On reforming NHI drug policy, NHIA Director General Shih proposed plans aimed at expediting the introduction of new drugs to closer align with international standards, reviewing the Drug Expenditure Target policies to ensure a stable drug supply, enhancing health technology assessment methodologies to better align reimbursement terms with real-world evidence, establishing policies for generic and biosimilar drugs, adjusting pricing policies to allow balance billing for drugs and medical devices, and implementing rolling-review of reimbursement policies on drugs and medical devices.

NHIA Director General Shih said that domestically manufactured drugs will be given preferential pricing and pricing adjustments. With revisions to the “National Health Insurance Fee Schedule and Reference List for Drugs” and "Regulations of Price Adjustment for National Health Insurance Reimbursed Drugs” expected to be completed at the end of 2024, the supply of drugs is anticipated to become more stable, adding that policies supporting generic and biosimilar drugs will also be implemented to bolster domestic pharmaceutical companies. Director General Shih added that there are many global precedents where policymakers have reduced reimbursement pricing on biosimilar drugs whose patent period has expired to support the introduction of new drugs.

[2024-8-22/SET News]