The theme for World Health Day 2024 is "My Health, My Right," advocating for everyone's access to essential health services without facing financial hardships. This encompasses a comprehensive range of health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.
Taiwan's NHI ensures the right of all citizens to access healthcare services regardless of age, gender, income, or health status. With a 100% coverage rate and providing necessary, affordable and accessible medical services. For remote and mountainous areas, home healthcare, telemedicine, and localized medical services are implemented to promote equal access to healthcare for all, achieving the WHO's goal of UHC.
Taiwan's NHI is dedicated to sustainable development, striving to offer citizens affordable and high-quality healthcare services to alleviate patient burdens. Efforts encompass ongoing reforms of the NHI drug reimbursement scheme, the establishment of the Center for Health Policy and Technology Assessment (CHPTA) focused on conducting healthcare technology assessments, and the reinforcement of evidence-based and value-based NHI reimbursement policies.
We advocate for implementing a parallel submission system for drug licensing and NHI reimbursement, alongside introducing a provisional payment system targeting drugs not yet completing Phase III clinical trials but clinically urgent. This aims to expedite the integration of new drugs and technologies into the NHI system. Additionally, we establish a New Drug Fund to advance in cancer treatment and further the "NHI Cancer Treatment Quality Improvement Program." This program seeks to establish a comprehensive mechanism encouraging cancer screening and timely treatment, thereby reducing its impact on citizens' health.
Furthermore, we advocate for NHI reimbursement for cancer genetic testing and the integration of NHI Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) genetic testing data into the National Biological Database Integration Platform. This systematic integration of genetic and clinical healthcare data serves as a basis for assessing NHI reimbursement effectiveness and accelerates clinical trials and related research in precision medicine. It fosters the development of precision medicine in our country, constructing a comprehensive ecosystem that maximizes patient medication rights and optimally utilizes NHI resources.
In Taiwan, the implementation of NHI aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by incorporating UHC as part of the SDGs. Like all UN member states, Taiwan is committed to supporting the achievement of UHC by 2030 as advocated by the WHO. Taiwan's NHI is willing to share our experiences and assist countries and regions striving towards these goals.
◎Related URL:
World Health Organization(WHO) World Health Day 2024: My health, my right
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2024/04/07/default-calendar/world-health-day-2024-my-health-my-righthttps://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2024