A potential bill by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) calling for the government to pay all children’s health insurance costs would harm policies to support disadvantaged families, medical experts said today, with the Ministry of Health and Welfare advising the party to reconsider.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that the KMT caucus plans to propose that the central government pay National Health Insurance (NHI) costs for all children aged up to six, meant to encourage people to have more children to boost the birthrate.
The NHI is a universal social insurance built on mutual support, the ministry said today.
Photo: Taipei Times
The government already subsidizes insurance premiums for low and middle-income households with children under 18, as well as people with disabilities and indigenous people who meet requirements, easing the financial burden of medical care for disadvantaged families, it said.
The government also subsidizes medical fees for children under three and disadvantaged children under 18, it added.
Children under three enrolled in NHI receive subsidies for inpatient and outpatient copayments, which totaled an average of NT$1.7 billion (US$52.9 million) annually from 2020 to 2024, benefiting an estimated 8.88 million patients annually, ministry data showed.
Subsidies for disadvantaged children under 18 cover hospitalization, nursing care fees, preventative evaluations and certain therapies, benefiting about 18,000 people, with subsidies totaling about NT$150 million annually, the ministry said.
The core of NHI is insurance and mutual-aid, with the wealthy helping the poor, Taiwan College of Healthcare Executives director Hung Tzu-jen (洪子仁) said.
According to regulations, children’s NHI costs vary according to their parents’ income, so families with more money would pay higher fees, Hung said.
If the government subsidizes NHI costs for all children up to age six, subsidies for wealthy families could end up being higher than those for other children, which goes against the NHI’s spirit of mutual support, he said.
In addition, subsidizing all children’s NHI costs could compromise the government’s ability to meet its mandated share of NHI funding, which would be “absolutely detrimental” to the program’s financial stability, Hung said.
There are many healthcare-related solutions to address the declining birthrate, including strengthening childbirth subsidies and creating more child-friendly environments, he added.
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