Hi all, I have a health insurance problem that I would love to hear if you guys have any experience with or solutions to.
So I am a U.S. / Taiwan dual citizen, used to live in Taiwan for a few years. When I was there I had an ID card, a hukou, everything. I paid for national health insurance through my company, and it was all good. So about 7 years ago I left, and moved back to the U.S. Before I left I canceled my Taiwan health insurance. Since then I go back once a year to visit family, only for a week or two, and I never tried to use the insurance card at all.
Now just recently, the gov’t sent a bill for me, to my family in Taiwan, for total health insurance charges for 6 FREAKING YEARS. It is a total of almost 60K NT!!! Apparently the insurance automatically “re-activates” once you set foot in the country again, even if you cancelled it, and even if you never used it, and even if you do not live in Taiwan. I was never told this before, not when I cancelled, and certainly not when it “re-activated”, and we never got any notices or bills prior to this.
WTF right??? Is there any way around this?? First of all this is not a small sum, I don’t really have an extra 60K NT lying around, and I am not even in the country so even if I had the money I don’t know how to pay (deadline to pay is 30 days from now). My parents and relatives are not well off either, and my mom is sick so they have high medical costs…I just can’t ask them to pay for me. And most importantly, this is simply not right! They are asking me to pay for stuff I already cancelled and never used and never had any intention of using.
According to German law and most of the Taiwanese basic laws are a translation of German law, they have to bill or remind you within 2 years. If that was the first bill you got within the past 6 years then I guess they can only charge you the past 2 years.
However, the law here in Taiwan might differ from that.
Also, once you are in the insurance, you can continue to pay after you left your work. The insurance company can’t kick you out. This might be different in Taiwan also.
You need to talk to somebody in the Jianbao, call them for a start to explain the situation.
I do know that they track all payments, and my wife and family had to pay for payments they hadn’t contributed to for a year or two…ouch. Well I had to pay. But they were residents of Taiwan all the time, not sure how they can charge you when you are not resident. As far as I know, you can only access Jianbao after establishing 6 months of continuous residence in Taiwan.
It is the law. When you plan to exit the country for more than 6 months, you are supposed to visit the Health bureau, or local branch, to “suspend” your health insurance, so they do not bill you. When you return, you are supposed to visit them the next business day, to ‘reactivate’ your health insurance so they will start billing you and you can start using it.
This is documented on their official web site. You can’t really claim that they did not inform you.
This is what I do anyway. I am a dual citizen, so I use this rule and not get billed the whole year, only the duration when I stay in Taiwan.
They permit one time write-off, so I suggest that you come back to Taiwan, and personally go to the health bureau, or local branch, to explain the situation, and request one time write-off. From then on, make sure you “suspend” before you leave, and “reinstate” on your way back.
They can wave the fee one time as they did mine. So, talk to them. If you are still in US, call their hotline and ask about it. Or have your relative go and and see if they can ask to wave the fee for you.
For future reference, can you not just use your other passport for entering Taiwan to avoid such scenario ??
I suppose most countries don’t need a costy visa anymore.
Health Insurance is a right and obligation in Taiwan as long as you maintain citizenship. Is this something you can simply “cancel”? Same with my US health insurance. If I do not have one, I pay a fine there.
But, really, OP should just call them. Each person’s case is unique.
You should just call them, and ask about how to get yours waved. Everyone’s case is different. I got mine waved for thousands. A friend waved about NT 15K.
If you are in US, just call them at your night time.
But they were residents of Taiwan all the time, not sure how they can charge you when you are not resident. As far as I know, you can only access Jianbao after establishing 6 months of continuous residence in Taiwan.