In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan's healthcare system has faced significant challenges, including workforce shortages, hospital bed closures, rising out-of-pocket medical expenses, and slower reimbursement of innovative medicines. These issues highlight the limitations of a long-standing policy mindset that treats healthcare as a cost rather than an investment. The author notes that Taiwan's healthcare expenditure accounts for less than 7% of GDP—lower than that of Japan and South Korea—resulting in insufficient financial resilience for healthcare institutions and undermining both care quality and service capacity.

To address these challenges, Hung Tzu-Jen（洪子仁） proposed the initiative "Healthcare is an Investment, Not a Cost" in 2023, calling on the government to increase healthcare spending to more than 8% of GDP by 2028. Over the past two years, the government has advanced its Healthy Taiwan policy by raising the annual growth rate of the National Health Insurance (NHI) global budget to 5.5% for two consecutive years. Including additional public funding, overall healthcare investment has grown by more than 8%, reflecting a policy shift toward investing in health.

These investments have contributed to higher salaries for healthcare professionals, faster adoption of innovative medicines and medical technologies, improved healthcare services and infrastructure, and a NT$48.9 billion Healthy Taiwan Development Program to enhance working environments, cultivate healthcare talent, and promote smart healthcare. The author argues that strengthening healthcare financial resilience ultimately benefits the entire population and urges the government to maintain annual NHI budget growth of no less than 5% while working toward healthcare expenditure exceeding 8% of GDP, thereby ensuring a sustainable healthcare system, a stable workforce, and better health outcomes for the people of Taiwan.

【2026-07-01/ CNA】