The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday morning officially announced a hike in the self-payment fee ratio for both outpatients and emergency patients. The new health policy will come into effect July 15.
According to the new policy -- proposed by the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) under the health department -- the fees for outpatients at district, regional, and national hospitals will be raised to NT$80, NT$240 and NT$360, from the present NT$50, NT$140, and NT$210, respectively.
The fees for outpatients at local clinics will remain NT$50.
As for all emergency patients, the fees at regional and national hospitals will be raised to NT$300 and NT$450, from the present NT$210 and NT$420, respectively. The fees for emergency patients at both district hospitals and local clinics will remain NT$150.
The announcement was made by BNHI chief David Liu (劉見祥) during a press conference yesterday.
Liu said that patients with critical illnesses such as cancer and certain rare diseases will not be subject to the fee-hikes. Also, the fees for those visiting dentists or practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine will not be raised. Meanwhile, those who are mentally or physically challenged will only have to pay NT$50.
As for outpatient referral services, the fees remain unchanged, as patients need to pay NT$50 at local clinics and district hospitals, and NT$140 and NT$210 for regional and national hospitals, respectively.
In response to the policy, many civic groups were critical of the new fee hikes.
"The fee-hike plan is so rough. We will take actions soon to show our anger to the DOH," said Sun You-lian (
"Past fee hikes failed to stop the BNHI's waste of medical resources, nor did they help the bureau to solve its serious financial difficulties," Sun said.
Liu Su-fen (
Terry Huang (
But the BNHI rejected such such criticism by saying, "This policy will no doubt increase a patient's financial burden, but it is impossible to please everybody," Liu said.
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