Since the inception of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, the cost of drugs has grown yearly, and the drug price gap has continued to be a focus of concern of all segments of society. To respond positively to the expectation of the public and all segments of society, the BNHI has conducted four drug surveys and price adjustments in accordance with the "BNHI Drug Price Standards" and the "BNHI Guidelines for Price Adjustment for National Health Insurance Reimbursed drugs" that began in 1999. The current, and fifth, adjustment will be announced shortly and will be effective as of November 1, 2006. There are 5,358 items whose prices will be adjusted. The adjusted amount is expected to total NT$7-9 billions.

The key points of this current drug price adjustment are as follows:
(1) Significant reduction in the drug price gap: through a systematic drug price adjustment, drug reimbursement prices were brought closer to the actual weighted average sales prices on the drugs market.
(2) Encouragement of drug safety: in consideration for the added costs of safety packaging, higher coverage prices are reasonably provided.
(3) Guarantee of stable availability of special drugs: drugs with highly volatile prices that impact the life safety of the public, such as drugs for rare diseases, plus Albumin, genotype coagulation factor, etc., will not be included in this drug price adjustment so as to minimize volatility of supply because of the price uncertainty factor.
(4) Reduction in the co-payment charge: this drug price adjustment includes about 5,000 drug items for which the reimbursement payment has been lowered. For the public this means when seeing a doctor and using similar medications the co-payment portion will be reduced.
(5) Retention of flexible adjustment range: the price adjustment range for some drugs has been combined with a safety improvement mechanism so that drug companies can raise the price of their products in parallel with their efforts to raise safety levels and thus create a win-win advantage for all parties.
(6) Amelioration of low relative value: because drugs have historically accounted for about 24~25% of all treatment expenditures, under a system of fixed limits for overall medical expenditures, drug price adjustments bring down overall medical expenditures and can allow other medical services to have a larger percentage of expenditures, thus reflecting a rational division of resources.

With regard to drug safety and quality, the framework of this drug price adjustment includes two new regulations, the details of which follow:
(1) To encourage manufacturers to produce original drug packaging (that includes instructions and expiration dates) that pharmacists can hand over directly to the public, one of the items in the announcement is the addition of a price ceiling of NT$1.5 for oral tablets and capsules. If manufacturers produce standard packaging with prices below NT$1.5 per tablet or capsule they can attach documentary proof and send this information to the BNHI requesting a price adjustment.
(2) To further encourage manufacturers to make oral liquid medicine for children" + String.fromCharCode(39) + "s dosages, oral solutions that can be made available to the public in original packaging and whose price must be adjusted downward will have a floor price of NT$20.

This drug price adjustment, in addition to effectively narrowing the drug price gap, will, guided by policy as it is, raise patient drug safety and drug quality. Of course, because drug prices are adjusted downward, this will indirectly reduce drug co-payment limits. In addition, the money made available by this adjustment will be used for raises in standard coverage and reimbursement adjustments and the relative percentage value of drugs in overall medical expenses. This will provide Taiwan citizens with medications on a par with advanced countries around the world and at the same time will raise the quality of medical treatment. In future, in addition to continuing to carry out drug price adjustment in an even more diversified way, the BNHI will combine other approaches and deal with the drug price issue in a comprehensive way, making the best possible use of NHI resources.