1.Premium payments are at a 98% level.
Health insurance premium payments by group insurance applicants (GIA) and the ensured have been for many years at the 98% level, clearly showing how much the public is in agreement with the system. But the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) cannot hide the fact that 2% of the public does not pay premiums on time. It has been found that the primary reason, aside for that portion of the population that forgets to pay because of a busy work schedule or simple neglect, is that there is also a portion of the population is unable to pay the premiums because of temporary financial difficulties.
2. Premium Payment Assistance for the Disadvantaged
For people who because of economic difficulties are delinquent in their health insurance premium payments, the BNHI makes available a whole range of assistance measures, including installment payments, no-interest Relief Fund loans for premium back payments or referral to a public interest group that will pay on their behalf. Information on these individual measures between January and June, 2006 is as follows:
(1) Installment payments: 135,000 payments were made by 230,000 people totaling NT$4.611 billion.
(2) Relief Fund loans: 7,003 loans were made to 12,000 people totaling NT$1.2 billion.
(3) Assistance from public interest groups: 288 cases involving 500 people were processed totaling NT$2.15 million.
In addition, the BNHI also implemented "Emergency Health Guarantee Measures." These measures make provisions for people unable to pay health insurance premiums to simply take with them a poverty certificate issued by the village head or medical institution when they have severe symptoms and need to see a doctor and then they are able to get treatment with NHI status.
3. Compassion for the needy, spreading the love.
In addition to the public requesting the above assistance measures, BNHI branch offices also take the initiative and deliver compassion to the door step. The Taipei BNHI office, for example, has been promoting the "Spread the Love" project since May, 2006 combining community resources with volunteer manpower to show compassion to the disadvantaged living on the margins of society and has made channels available for face-to-face transmission of BNHI communication and various assistance measure. As of the end of August, some 3,900 people had benefited from this activity. Other branch offices will also promote this project in their own turn.
4. Paying premiums by bank account transfer, time-saving and convenient
According to BNHI statistics, only 50,000 , or 30% of the total, insured of Category VI have used a financial institution to make transfer payments of their premiums. There are, by contrast, some 1.2 million people who pay by paper bill and it is therefore hard to avoid situations where people forget to pay their health insurance premiums. The BNHI sincerely urges the public to use the time-saving and convenient bank account transfer method to pay health insurance premiums. Currently there are more than 5,000 financial institutions able to process transfer payments, and a dedicated line, 0800-212-369, can be used to make inquiries. Bank transfer health insurance premium payments are done free of any service charge.
5. Obligation to closely monitor the collection and payment of premiums by GIAs.
While treating the disadvantaged insured with compassion, the BNHI continues to monitor delinquent payments from GIAs and today is publicly announcing the name of an aberrant professional union that is delinquent in paying its health insurance premiums, the Kaohsiung Professional Medical Association, which owes NT$1.035 million. The BNHI Kaoping office has given guidance to the association and has urged it to make the payment. If the payment is not made by the deadline given, the case will be referred for administrative enforcement.
If the hired employees of a company or the members of a professional union wish to know whether there are any irregularities in the GIA payment of health insurance premiums, they may inquire at the local BNHI office. The BNHI also once again reminds employees and union members with GIAs that they should retain a receipt showing the deduction made by the GIA or the actual payment (which includes the date and the amount). If the GIA does not pass along the payments to the BNHI and is subject to administrative enforcement an insured person need only show the receipt and the medical rights and interests of the employee or union member will not be affected.