"It Is Cheaper To Have Your Baby Delivered Than to Have Your Newspaper Delivered"

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We threw everything we had at them. Doctor choice, patient privacy, prescription formularies...

The Taiwan National Health Insurance plan is something for Americans to envy. Our group's combination of public policy experience, professional expertise, and business experience provided a steady barrage of questions for the officials of the Taiwan Health System.

The system is a model for universal health care coverage.

The cost of the system is covered by a 4.55% payroll tax and covers the 22.7 million citizens of Taiwan and foreigners with resident permits. Of the 18,000 medical facilities available, 85% of the Hospitals and 98% of the clinics are privately owned.

Doctor choice may have been one of the few things we discovered that some Americans wouldn't be as happy about. A patient chooses where to go. The place they go determines whether they are in the correct place - for instance, a walk-in to an emergency room would be redirected to a clinic if their condition was not an emergency.

And it sounded like you may not get to strictly choose which doctor first sees you, but it also appeared that their were ways around that which would allow you to see who you want to see.

The co-payment for all services and drugs is $6US.

Mental health and dental are completely included. And as the headline hints; childbirth is free with the average maternal stay at the hospital 4-5 days. Additionally, low income households, veterans, children under 3 and individuals with catastrophic illnesses are exempt from all copayments.

With this plan in place, Taiwan's total health expenditures as Percentage of GDP is 6.3% as compared to 15% in the U.S. Taiwan's health care expenditures per capita are 6.8 times less that the United States.

I could go on and on, but I need to get ready for today's meeting...

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Comments

[Sharon Hicks]

But we got Medicare....
I'm wondering if the 4.55% payroll tax fully funds the system or is it further subsidized by the government and if so what is the extent of the subsidy? Also, how many of the 22.7 million people are actually employed and pay the tax? What happens when they retire and no longer work to pay the tax? Do they still get coverage? On average, most of a person's medical expenses will be in the last years of their life....I'm wondering if they have as many old people as the US does? We just celebrated a 100th Birthday in our family. Her last hospital visit was one day, on February 8th, and cost around $7,000. Hooray for Medicare. We also have the FREE baby thing here too....and it comes with an added BONUS, citizenship.

[Rachteach22]

I love the Taiwan system
As an American living here in Taiwan for the past year I have been to the doctor and the hospital many times and I cannot get over the fact how incredibly cheap it is. Also something else to note, is when you need new glasses or contacts you just go to any glasses shop and they will give you a free eye exam, on top of the fact you can get designer glasses made for under $100 usd!!! I cant believe Im actually going to leave all these great benefits.