To relieve the burden of health insurance premiums on victims of Kaohsiung’s gas explosions, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) provides the following health insurance premium payment postponement and arrears-support measures: 

1. For the insured in Category 6 who live in the affected area, the deadline to make premium payments for the period covering July 2014 to September 2014 is extended by six months. The collection of health insurance premium arrears and administrative enforcement thereof will be temporarily suspended from August to December 2014 for group insurance applicants and the insured in the affected area. 

2. Victims will be entitled to the following supportive measures for one year if the NHIA deems that they meet the financial hardship criteria in accordance with Paragraph 2, Article 5 of the Criteria for Recognition of Financial Hardship for National Health Insurance: 
(1) Seeking medical care as the insured when presenting their NHI IC Cards; 

(2) Eligible to apply to the National Health Insurance Poverty Relief Fund for an interest-free loan for health insurance premium arrears and unpaid copayment amounts; 

(3) Exempted from payment of health insurance premium arrears; 

(4) Exempted from administrative enforcement for health insurance premium arrears; 

(5) Exempted from delinquency charges incurred as a result of late payment of health insurance premiums. 

In the event that a person cannot seek medical care due to the inability to present a NHI IC Card during the disaster period, he/she may request medical institutions to fill in the date of medical treatment, type of medical treatment (inpatient or outpatient), his/her name, date of birth, ID number, phone number, and address in the Roster of Patients Seeking Medical Care under Exceptional Circumstances at NHI Contracted Medical Institutions distributed by the NHIA to contracted medical institutions before receiving medical care as an insured. The NHIA will issue new NHI IC Cards free of charge to people whose cards have been confirmed to have been damaged by the gas explosions. To apply for a new card, please submit a completed NHI IC Card Application Form that reads “Kaohsiung gas explosion victim” to local post offices, business sections or local offices of the NHIA in person. 

For any questions, please call 0800-030-598.