ROC Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta called on the international community May 28 to support Taiwan’s bid for expanded participation in the World Health Organization.
In an English-language commentary published in The Korea Times, Chiu urged that Taiwan’s role be extended from attendance at the World Health Assembly as an observer to inclusion in other WHO meetings, mechanisms and activities.
The minister headed Taiwan’s delegation to the 65th session of the WHA in Geneva, Switzerland, May 21 to 26.
Noting that the WHO attaches great importance to the establishment of health care systems, he said Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system, launched in 1995, has “received affirmation at home and abroad.”
“In 2011, delegations from over 50 countries visited Taiwan to study its universal health insurance program,” he pointed out.
Under the single-payer plan, which he called “a form of self-financed social insurance,” premiums are shared among the insured, the insured’s employer and the government.
Currently, 99.6 percent of Taiwan’s population is covered by the NHI, enjoying “accessible and effective medical service based on a fair payment scheme,” Chiu said.
While providing high quality care, the system has kept expenses under control, with total medical costs for the program amounting to only 6.9 percent of gross domestic product. At the same time, a sound information technology network has kept administrative costs to just 1.5 percent of all NHI expenditures, Chiu said.
In addition, the most vulnerable members of society enjoy coverage, thanks to government subsidy programs, thereby breaking “the link between illness and poverty.”
“The NHI is one of Taiwan’s most successful public projects in history, with a public satisfaction rate of 88.6 percent,” he stressed.
“Taiwan is eager to help raise global health standards by sharing its experience through the WHO platform,” Chiu explained.
But he lamented the lack of substantive progress in terms of greater participation since Taiwan was granted WHA observer status four years ago.
In May 2011, Chiu noted, a confidential WHO memo emerged showing that Taiwan had been downgraded in status and made subject to many restrictions.
“The people of Taiwan and many in other nations have voiced dissatisfaction and grave concern over the situation. Taiwan has also expressed time and time again to the WHO Secretariat its protest at such treatment,” he wrote. (SB-THN)