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Is Taiwan's National Health Insurance a perfect system? Problems related to health care utilization of the aboriginal population in rural townships
Author(s) -
Lee YiTing,
Lee YenHan,
Kaplan Warren A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.2653
Subject(s) - health care , socioeconomic status , population , environmental health , national health insurance , health equity , business , health policy , rural area , economic growth , rural health , socioeconomics , geography , medicine , economics , pathology
Summary National Health Insurance (NHI) was implemented in Taiwan in 1995, and has significantly increased coverage to 99% of the population. The implementation of NHI has had large impacts on health disparities. Despite that, the NHI faces multiple challenges, including the condition of “coverage without access” among the Taiwanese aboriginal population, mostly residing in mountainous townships and experiencing lower socioeconomic status, decreased health outcomes, and limited access to adequate high‐quality health care services. This paper summarizes the persistent health gap and the differences in health care utilization and health outcomes between the aboriginal population in rural townships and urban populations in Taiwan. Mountainous townships face challenges including lack of access to high‐quality health care services and limited medical resources. Further policy recommendations and current progress are highlighted and discussed.