Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution.
The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
According to the current regulations, people expecting to leave the country for six months or more can file to suspend their NHI status and their obligation to pay until they return and submit an application to resume their NHI status.
The vast majority of people who benefited from the measures were those who planned to be abroad for more than six months, although there have been rare cases of people who were found in Taiwan after suspending their status, Shih said.
People who do not return to Taiwan within two years would have their NHI records expunged, he said.
The regulations have long been criticized as unfair, as they allowed overseas Taiwanese to resume their NHI status and enjoy Taiwan’s medical services despite living overseas and not paying for the service.
With the NHIA’s decision not to amend the regulations, the 210,000 Taiwanese currently abroad — mostly expatriates and students — would have to resume paying for their NHI, which is expected to bring in NT$2.3 billion (US$70.59 million) in increased annual NHI income, Shih said.
Those abroad would automatically have their NHI resumed once they return to Taiwan and would not need to undergo additional processes or pay extraneous fees, he said.
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