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Medical industry calls for expenditure target system
Representatives from the medical industry are urging the government to transition the National Health Insurance set-up from an "expenditure cap" system to an "expenditure target" system. They argue such a move will enable authorities to allocate extra funding.
The call follows a public hearing in Taipei earlier this week, at which medical industry representatives suggested that "extra expenditure" could be reimbursed at a reduced rate.
They also said changes will require an additional budget of around NT$60 billion but that figure is lower than the authority estimate of between NT$70 billion and NT$100 billion.
The budget for the National Health Insurance system this year is around NT$870 billion. Under the current "expenditure cap" system, the NHI has an annual fixed budget which covers treatments provided in hospitals, clinics and dialysis centres, as well as those by dentists and Chinese medicine practitioners.
Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan has said if the proposal was accepted, fees for next year's National Health Insurance could increase. Hsueh will leave office after 20 May.
