It has been 22 years since the inception of the National Health Insurance. Yesterday (May 23) Director General of the National Health Insurance Administration Lee Po-chang was invited to the Taiwan-Switzerland Health Insurance Forum held in Geneva by the Swiss Society for Health Policy to give a keynote speech on the “Achievements and Challenges of Taiwan National Health Insurances.” The audience all expressed admiration and envy for the high-quality medical care provided in Taiwan.

Although Taiwan could not attend the WHA as an observer this year, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung headed to Geneva with his WHO mission team. After an international press meeting in Geneva two days ago, the major event yesterday was Director-General Lee’s speech at the Health Insurance Forum, in which he shared Taiwan’s experience in health insurance and engaged in exchanges with experts and scholars from Switzerland.

Director-General Lee pointed out that after President Tsai took office, the National Health Insurance has expanded its service, including annulling suspension of health insurance as punitive measures for overdue bills, inclusion of oral hepatitis C drugs in health insurance coverage, the 2.0 long-term care service that expands the integration of health insurance and home care, promotion of hierarchical and bilateral transfer of clinic appointment, upgrading health bank services, upgrading the functions of the health insurance mobile app and a cloud search system for information about health insurance and other medical services. These measures aim to offer the public better health insurance programs.

        Director-General Lee emphasized that health insurance expenses rose drastically in the past few years. An analysis of the big data shows rooms for improvement, such as cutting down unnecessary spending of medical resources and avoiding repetitive prescriptions, tests, and examinations. Health insurance will match the needs of medical care even more closely in the future to optimize its service to our 23 million population. The system will also work on ensuring reasonable compensation for medical personnel and creating a better work environment for them, in order for the health insurance system to achieve sustainability.

This Forum was moderated by Prof. Bettina Borisch from the Institute of Global Health Office, Geneva. Besides keynote speaker Director-General Lee Po-chang, other officials representing Taiwan-- Minister Chen Shih-chung, Consultant of WHO Mission Team Kuo Hsu-sung, Director-General of the Health Promotion Administration Wang Ying-wei, Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration Wu Shou-mei, and Director of the Department of Nursing and Health Care Tsai Shu-feng-- all attended the forum from beginning to end.