Lawmakers across party lines yesterday jointly urged the government to provide subsidies for parents with premature babies, who account for about 11 percent of newborns in Taiwan.
Data from the Premature Babies Foundation showed that 10.56 percent of approximately 130,000 newborns in Taiwan last year were premature babies.
Within six months after the birth of a premature baby, the average out-of-pocket medical expenses for a family was NT$114,000, nearly four times higher than medical expenses for a full-term baby, the foundation said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The earlier a premature baby is born, the higher the average medical expenses are, both during hospitalization and after being discharged from hospitals, the foundation said.
Half of the parents whose babies were born after only 29 weeks reported stress in caring for premature babies, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Hsiung-fang (黃秀芳), whose two children were born prematurely, said that government-funded subsidies should be made available for families with premature infants as raising them was indeed a challenge.
“Premature babies might need nutritional products soon after they are born, but might have underdeveloped lungs. Feeding them is not as easy as they are tiny,” Huang said.
“Parents often endure physical and psychological stress when caring for premature babies, with some of them struggling to pay medical bills. Government-funded subsidies would be a great help to first-time parents with premature infants,” she said.
DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said her second daughter was a premature baby.
“I experienced an unexpected bleeding during the 27th week of pregnancy and checked into the emergency room, where I was injected with steroids as the doctor tried to stop the baby from coming out for another 72 hours,” she said.
Su’s second daughter was eventually born prematurely and weighed only 998g.
“She was smaller than an arm and slept in an incubator, with her whole body covered with tubes. Her eyes were also covered with gauze as she could not see light. I watched her, wondering whether she would survive,” Su said.
Parents of premature babies often have to pay seven-figure medical bills when their babies are discharged from hospital, Su said.
“As a legislator, I am glad that I have the power to influence the direction of our healthcare system, and I hope that the government can provide subsidies for parents with premature infants,” Su said.
New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that Taiwan’s death rate among newborns is 4.4 percent, higher than the average for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states.
Preterm birth is one of the main factors, apart from hereditary diseases, Wang said.
“The government should invest more resources in the healthcare of premature babies,” she said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to