Hospital charges foreigners 30% more than Taiwan citizens

Oh yeah, I remember that thread.

Every.
Fucking.
Time.

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It seems obvious, but when you speak to locals about this, most are unaware.

Then potentially getting charged 30% more when visiting the emergency room at Tri-services Hospital on Tingzhou Road ā€¦ it just adds salt to the wounds.

Guy

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NTUH informed by phone today they received a large amount of complaints and NTUH had discussed the issue last May. NTUH will make a change in the system.What this exactly is, when, why, if any charges will be refunded (not only NTUH), if Taipei city government will make a formal announcement (to clarify ā€œmisunderstandingsā€ and/or how correct the issue) , and why after a year of the announcement NTUH still decided to introduce the charges on April 1st , wasnā€™t provided. Then it also remains to be clarified if the Taipei cityā€™s government issued this letter based on another organizationā€™s directive.

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I think this is relevant, but I heard from a Taiwanese friend that this new extra charge is a reaction to people who have alternate passports, ie Taiwanese who have American passports, live and work in the States, and expressly travel to Taiwan specifically to get ā€œfreeā€ healthcare. How I heard these people are being treated is that if they do not return and pay off their debts by full price for this misuse, they will no longer receive treatment. If each hospital charges differently, try another hospital? I havenā€™t noticed this uptick in price at all since Nov 2019, and Iā€™ve been regularly going to get blood work monthly all year at Mackay and recently this year for checkups at Taipei Veteran General, as Iā€™m pregnant. I usually get my test reports handed to me at my doctorā€™s appointment a week after I travel in for the test. Each one along with a consultation have been just 300.

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This could be a plausible face save as it is true many oversees taiwanese come back for healthcare.

I notice that the price for me (aprc) and my wife (taiwanese) is the same for the same treatments, such as dental checkups. Specific doctor visits are hard to compare many times.

I had forgotten about this issue, but am reminded now and also quite curious how it is working. 20nt here and there for random checks isnt the issue. People on deaths door getting checked multiple times daily will be racking up tens of thousands monthly this wayā€¦that is worrisome.

Reminds me of the system in the region i was born. If you have resident status, then healthcare is treated as ā€œlocalā€. If you are not a resident, you get treated a such. This works well on both ends. I am a citizen there, but live in taiwan. I am not a resident. So if i go back i get treated as a foreigner. If i go back and live for 3 months in that area, i regain my resident status by proxy. As such, foreigners who are not citizens can be residents (like arc/aprc here) and get health care. If they leave, same deal. This seems quite fair to be honest. Make it 6 months, and no arguments from me. The way i see it, if i pay taxes to you, you need to extend your rights tome. if you dont, no need to pay taxes. And, based on birth, you dont get all services granted to you if you are not a resident. Foreigners here get resident status based on days in the country. Imagine if people with national ID cards had to play by those rules. Chaos.

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yes, their intention is to charge more for those people. Iiuc, each hospital was requested to make own regulations on the extra charge for patients who donā€™t have NHI.

The problem here is NTUH maybe made the rule or system that foreigners with NHI card are charged more than nationals who havenā€™t been here for decades and without NHI card, for self pay procedures at NTUH.

NTUH has corrected their systems and upon showing the NHI card the extra fee is not charged anymore. Do not know if that was done based on any directive from the government
Edit: back somewhere in October I was still charged 30% extra for the same test (even with the NHI card). So this must have been a recent change somewhere before mid December

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Thatā€™s good! We should treasure every win!

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Confirmed this with NTUH today. Iā€™m having an all day health exam next week and they confirmed that foreigners who present an NHI card at registration are not charged an extra 30%.

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Iā€™m intrigued by your ā€˜all day health examā€™. Care to share some details or a link to more info? Cheers.

Is it really a win if theyā€™re not forced to compensate all of the people who were improperly charged in the past?

I donā€™t have a particularly soft spot in my heart for class action lawyers in the US, but this is the perfect use case for them.

I agree, but we gotta pick our battles too.
Going after a hospital for chump change is not a good use of our time when we could be fighting for dual citizenship, a higher impact outcome.

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Not punishing people for these kinds of grifts only encourages more of them.

Frankly, Iā€™m not sure how many foreigners are interested in becoming citizens in countries where foreign residents are conned and nobody gets punished for it. Iā€™m not.

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Youā€™re not wrong, but we have a paradox. We canā€™t become citizens without giving up.

We canā€™t change the law without the support of constituents and MPs.

We only have 24 hours in a day.

So, again, youā€™re not wrong, but how can we change things as non constituents? How can we protest if we are not afforded that right? Why are we spending hundreds of thousands on lawyers fighting for 40Ā¢ Canadian? You know the media is a clickbait farm as well.

Yes, someone went unpunished for stealing 40Ā¢. We can choose to fight that, or we can choose to start at the root of the problem. Enabling dual citizenship for us means we can fight from the inside. We become a voting bloc. We can vote for stronger discrimination protections in a country that has largely been homogenous and remains 96% so.

We spend our limited resources and time fighting 40Ā¢ is just simply pruning twigs off a poison oak. Do we prune every little twig or do we axe the whole trunk down?

If we fight EVERY battle, we spin our tyres and go nowhere. Picking our battles means we can make the best use of our time.

The best way forwards is to secure ourselves leverage and voting rights. Then we can burn the rest of the tree.

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I get it. Youā€™re not wrong, but Iā€™d guess that most are not nearly as invested and committed as you are.

I came to Taiwan for business and am happy to be here right now. But once my business objectives have been met and I donā€™t need to be here any more, I plan to move on.

The reality is that there are a good number of places in the world with fairly high standards of living where foreign residents donā€™t have nearly as much trouble getting basic stuff done and where the rules are clear and enforced.

Taiwan is especially attractive right now because of Covid but itā€™s shooting itself in the foot generally.

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Thatā€™s right, but even if I move on, Iā€™d like to have a passport and an ability to return. Iā€™m eligible this June.

Sure there are plenty of places as you describe, but there are places that are also worse than Taiwan. Some of us love Taiwan. Iā€™d love to move on and come back again and again. I donā€™t have any tropical countries with citizenship. Iā€™d love to have the right to avoid snow.

Legally, my options are French Guiana and the Azores.

French Guiana donā€™t look that fun. But, Iā€™m commited, not just for myself but for people like you.

Silence is acceptance. So weā€™re trying to tell the country itā€™s shooting itself in the foot. If no foreigner whined about it, then they can claim ignorance. Youā€™re here on business, obviously contributing, they want more people like you but not everyone knows everything all the time. Homogeneous cultures donā€™t always understand the issues facing new residents.

Even if you move on, wouldnā€™t you want to just grab an extra passport before leavingā€¦just in case?

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Would have loved to back in the 1990s. I had been here for almost 7 years on an ARC back then, and we would have returned years ago if I had been able to get a passport back then. Even better if the kids had had passports based on being born in Taiwan. Thanks @Marco for your commitment!

On topic, sorry to see extra charges in hospitals now.
Back in the 90s, we never had complaints about hospital charges. We had a few, but most seemed reasonable and in line with what everyone else was paying. Glad to see it was fixed. Seems like more of an unintended consequence than intentional.

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Itā€™s all day, 8 to 4, costs 47,000 NT and includes full body low dose CAT scan, both ends endoscopy, complete blood work, bone density, treadmill etc. Pretty much everything necessary to catch any problems early.