I was just talking to a friend a few moments ago. He is Taiwanese citizen who moved to the US about 35 years ago. He went back this past December and applied for his national ID card. He came back to the US right before New Years. Just two days ago he went back to Taiwan and the next day he went to pick up his national health insurance card. It took him all of 15 minutes to get it.
Now what I don’t understand is how he can be back on the national health plan when he didn’t live in Taiwan for six months. I was told by most people that you needed to live in Taiwan for six months in order to get your health insurance reinstated. This whole thing is so confusing.
Maybe you only have to wait six months and not necessarily live in Taiwan for six months In order to get back on NHI.
six month waiting period (in theory) is to prevent people who have no previous ties to Taiwan from using some backdoor (like the Gold Card) to immediately get care for ongoing serious health issues.
Taiwanese citizens are given this privilege, but they don’t want to allow it for just anyone.
So if I go back to Taiwan now and get my Spousal ARC do I need to wait six months to get on the national health insurance or do I need to reside for six months qualify?
I think it depends, if your TW spouse is hired by a TW company, you would be enrolled as the dependent and get coverage immediately. The spouse has to advise the employer to add you and any dependent children to the insurance.
My husband has household registration and was forcibly reenrolled for a minimum of 3 months when we visited for a week even though he doesn’t live in Taiwan anymore.
I don’t have household registration and they told me no worries
In December he went back for vacation and applied for his National ID card. He then went back to the US. He’s now back in Taiwan to visit his mom and took the time to enroll in the National health plan.
I’ve been telling him all along that he needs to reside in Taiwan in order to be able to enroll in the NHI. He decided to give it a shot anyway, and they gave it to him. So now I’m thinking the requirement is just a six month waiting period and not a six month residency.
I have another friend who lives in the US and goes back once a year in the summer to visit family. He has his national ID card, but he’s not active on the household registration. Last summer while on a 2 week vacation he changed his address in Taiwan. About three months after he arrived back in the US his relatives told him he got a bill in the mail for his health insurance. What he ended up doing was suspending it.
This is another thing I’m not sure about. I was told if my wife started working in Taiwan then she would receive coverage immediately. Does that mean even if she just started working at a local 7-Eleven or McDonald’s or even if she started working as a cashier at a local restaurant; does that allow her to receive health coverage right away?
Ofc, as long as she is employed, doesn’t matter how much the job is paid. Those r workers and do a very honest and hard job, pay their taxes and contributions and r fully covered under NHI, they pay their premiums according to their salary and contribution class.
