Pregnant women whose household registration is in Taipei from Saturday would be eligible for an NT$8,000 subsidy for using taxis during their prenatal and postpartum period, the Taipei City Government announced yesterday.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) — who had his five-month-old son in a carrier — announced the new policy at Taipei City Hall.
Chiang said that as a father of three, he understands the challenges his wife faced to get prenatal care and take care of an infant during pregnancy and multiple children after giving birth.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
His administration has been studying how to improve safety and convenience for pregnant women, he said.
The taxi subsidy scheme would offer NT$8,000 per pregnancy and up to NT$250 per taxi ride, he said, adding that women would be eligible once they begin prenatal care checkups and receive the Health Promotion Administration’s Maternal Health Education Handbook until six month after their child is born.
The subsidy scheme has four special features — “the highest such subsidy in the nation, the longest period of eligibility, ease of application and convenient operation,” he added.
While some administrative regions provide a transportation subsidy to pregnant women, most end after childbirth, but Taipei offers more and for longer, as many women have expressed a need for postpartum services, when they are not yet fully recovered, but have to take their children with them to checkups and to get vaccinations, Chiang said.
Women can easily apply for the subsidy online or in person at Taipei’s 12 district offices, social welfare centers, public health centers, and contracted hospitals and clinics, he said, adding that they could apply while at a prenatal checkup.
Women who are eligible can book a taxi online through the city’s TaipeiPass app or hail a contracted taxi and pay through the mobile app, which is convenient and can avoid the problem of missing out on change by using a voucher, he said.
Twelve taxi companies, or about 16,000 cabs, would be part of the program, Chiang said.
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