National Health Insurance (NHI) is set to explore new financial strategies without increasing premiums next year. Medical policy experts advise comprehensive reforms to strengthen the healthcare funding mechanism, including potential adjustments to supplementary insurance and government contribution fees.
Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation’s (THRF) Executive Director Lin Ya-hui (林雅惠) highlighted the challenges of implementing a household-income based insurance model on Wednesday. She emphasized the need to address data gaps and underground economic activities before transitioning to such a system. Lin stressed the importance of introducing an annual settlement mechanism to prevent potential inequities in fees.
Taiwan College of Healthcare Executive Director Hung Tzu-jen (洪子仁) suggested optimizing the current system by expanding supplementary fee categories. He proposed differentiating between service income and capital gains, recommending an increase in supplementary fee rates from 2.11% to over 5.17%. Hung also advocated for raising the calculation ceiling for supplementary fees to ensure that individuals with higher capital gains contribute more equally.
The experts unanimously recommended increasing government contributions to the health insurance fund. Hung suggests raising the government’s legal obligation from the current minimum of 36% to 38% or even 40%, which could inject an additional three to five billion New Taiwan Dollars (US$92-153 million) annually. This approach is seen as an immediately feasible method to bolster the health insurance system’s financial sustainability without placing an additional burden on citizens.