A patient group in Taiwan has called for the introduction of supplementary health insurance amid concerns that medical insurance premiums will continue to rise, making health insurance unaffordable.
The Cancer Hope Foundation is urging administrators of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system to integrate commercial insurance resources and leverage the public’s willingness to buy insurance to alleviate patients’ financial difficulties, according to a report in the United Daily News. The NHI system is a compulsory national social health insurance scheme administered by the government.
Yen Pi-Wen, deputy executive director of the Cancer Hope Foundation, says there should be political intervention to introduce supplementary health insurance.
The view is that if the government were to intervene, people would be more accepting of supplementary health insurance. The pool of customers would increase and the risk-bearing capacity of insurers would be higher. The current problem of limited underwriting capacity and the inability of the sick and vulnerable to buy insurance would be alleviated.
A survey by the foundation found that nearly 40% of late-stage cancer patients spent more than NT$500,000 ($15,400) on out-of-pocket medical expenses.
“More than 70% of cancer patients rely heavily on commercial insurance, but nearly half believe that commercial insurance is not enough to cover the actual cost of treatment,” said Mr Yen. 53% of patients with advanced cancer believe that commercial insurance can barely or not at all cover medical expenses.
