A public petition calling for looser restrictions on the National Health Insurance (NHI)-covered medication for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) reached the 5,000-signature threshold yesterday, prompting Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) to pledge a swift review by the NHI Administration.
IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, in which the immune system attacks the intestines, causing severe abdominal pain, bloody stools, intestinal narrowing, perforations and even fistulas.
During flare-ups, people with IBD might need to use the bathroom 10 to 20 times a day and are often unable to leave the toilet while awake.
Photo: CNA
IBD commonly affects young adults aged between 20 and 40, many of whom are in school, starting careers or building families, only to find their lives limited by the disease.
NHI-covered treatments for IBD include biological agents and small molecule drugs, but only for a period of one year.
If the condition flares up again, patients must wait for a three-month observation period before they can reapply for medication.
Many patients are forced to stop treatment as their condition is stabilizing, causing relapses that reduce quality of life and increase healthcare expenses, advocacy groups said.
The petition on the National Development Council’s Public Policy Online Participation Platform was initiated by the Taiwan IBD Patient Support Association and the Taiwan Intestinal Health Association.
They advocated for the extension of NHI-covered medication for IBD to two years or more, like other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, and for the removal of the mandatory discontinuation and re-evaluation period.
The associations conducted a survey collecting 129 responses in two weeks, 75 from patients themselves.
The results showed that 91.3 percent of patients experienced a relapse after one year, with nearly 40 percent relapsing within three months of stopping medication.
In addition, abdominal pains and bloody stools returned for more than 80 percent of patients, while 70 percent experienced anxiety and depression related to the disease, 60 percent said it affected their work or studies, and nearly 30 percent ended up in hospital or an emergency room.
More than 80 percent of respondents hope to extend the medication coverage period and more than 60 percent called for the removal of the three-month observation period following a relapse.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
RSS