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Foreign ministry in favor of opening up to `medical tourists'

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the government's plan to promote medical tourism and allow foreigners to enter Taiwan for medical purposes for a maximum six-month stay, ministry spokesman David Wang (王建業) said yesterday.

Nevertheless, Wang said the ministry had no plans to create a new visa category for medical tourists as was reported by some media outlets.

Wang was referring to the comments made by Council for Economic Planning and Development officials, who on Wednesday said the government would give priority to medical tourism promotion as part of its efforts to expand tourist numbers and beef up the medical service sector.

At the moment, the ministry offers four kinds of visa -- diplomatic, courtesy, resident (long term) and tourist (short term), Wang said, adding that there was no "medical visa" category.

Under current regulations, Wang said, those who intend to come to Taiwan for medical purposes can apply for a visitor's visa with proof of financial status and relevant medical documents.

"Prospective medical tourists are welcome to apply for entry via the appropriate legal channels," Wang said, adding that the ministry would extend their visas for a maximum stay of six months.

Noting that Taiwan enjoys an advantage in several areas of medical expertise, including treatment of liver diseases, dental care, craniofacial surgery, herbal medicine and health checkups, the council officials said that the promotional efforts would initially focus on those fields.

In addition to allowing medical tourists to stay for up to six months, another system that would need to be established is an online medical bill pre-payment system, the official said.
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