The National Health Insurance (NHI) Committee has decided to include a new oral drug for hepatitis C into next year’s budget.
The NHI budget for next year is to rise 5 percent to NT$650 billion (US$20.75 billion), of which NT$3 billion will be allocated for the treatment of hepatitis C, including the new oral drug, the committee said after a meeting yesterday.
Discussions about whether the drug should be covered by the NHI system have been going on for months. While the drug is more expensive than other drugs on the market, doctors have said it would shorten treatment time and has fewer side effects.
Committee Executive Secretary Chou Shu-wan (周淑婉) said the NT$3 billion that would be allocated for hepatitis C treatment would cover current treatment methods, including the common combination of oral medication along with interferon, and the new oral drug.
However, the meeting did not reach a consensus on which part of the NHI budget should cover the expense, as representatives of the insured said hospitals should cover NT$2.655 billion of the expense for treating hepatitis C, while representatives of hospitals thought it should be covered by the NHI system’s other departments.
The opinions will be presented to Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延), who will make the final decision, she said.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS