Reported by Lu Hsin-Hui from Taipei

Chen Chien-Jen, the DPP’s vice-presidential candidate, expressed that one of the DPP’s policies is to promote personalized preventive medicine in communities.  He suggests that local health offices should be transformed into care centers to support local families. 

In the only televised political presentation, Chen Chien-Jen talked about the DPP’s policies of food safety, biotechnology and community care.  Chen said that various researches conducted in Taiwan, such as studies of the causes of Blackfoot Disease and the health impact from PM2.5 and plasticizers, have brought benefits to the global population.

Chen said that the global trend in medicine is “P-medicine”, i.e. prevention, prediction, personalization and participation.  As the technology advances and the environment & hygiene standards improve, people in Taiwan now live longer.  Taiwan has become an ageing society.  Therefore, the DPP sets a target to promote the community-based preventive medicine.

The DPP suggests transforming the existing local health offices into community care centers to provide integrated and coordinated health care for families in the community so that children and the elderly can receive proper care even in remote areas.

Chen pointed out that despite the fact that Taiwan has high quality of health care, the NHI system is fraught with the problems of poor working conditions for health professionals, uneven allocation of health care resources, the shortage of human resources, etc.  These questions must be dealt with properly.  The NHI system needs an overhaul.  There should be a comprehensive plan behind it.  Changing premiums according to the NHI financial situation is not a sustainable solution, concluded Chen.

【2016-01-05/ Central News Agency】