Project Details
Abstract
National Health Insurance (NHI) program in Taiwan has covered 96% of the population since its inception on March 1,1995. Recent NHI statistics in 1996 (July-December) has shown that, compared with the same period in 1995, annual increase rate of premium is 5-6%, however, the medical expenses is growing at the rate of 11.2%. In particular, expenditures on pharmaceuticals have taken up 25% of total medical expenditures and its annual growth rate has reached 11.4% that imposes a heavy burden on the insurer. Although medical expenditures is expected to rise under NHI, most of the NHI countries spent nearly half as Taiwan on pharmaceutical products. Hence, containing NHI pharmaceutical expenditures without suffering appropriate quality of care and the affordability of the insured has been an urgent issue for the policy marker.
Our study has finished review of the drug payment system in countries which have adopted drug policy with balance billing or co-payment. Further, we have performed descriptive statistics on the price and quantity of pharmaceuticals consumed under NHI. With the statistics, various proposals for drug balance billing methods and the ensuring impact on NHI financing were explored. Moreover, a discussion on balance billing principles based on current health systems was placed, general or pharmaceutical-oriented. Finally, based on the evaluation results, feasible policy recommendations were proposed.
Project IDs
Project ID:PG9409-0024
External Project ID:DOH87-NH-026
External Project ID:DOH87-NH-026
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 01/01/98 → 31/12/98 |
Keywords
- National Health Insurance
- payments system
- drug balance billing
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