As a dual (US/Taiwan) national I recently obtained my National ID card after updating my household registration and going to the household registration office. I needed to obtain my National ID (and therefore reactive household registration, etc.) in order to open a bank account due to some family legal stuff. When I was at the office, they had me go to the 8th floor to confirm what I should do about the national health insurance (jian bao) since everyone is typically enrolled and there is a monthly premium required.
When I explained to the attendant that I was only going to be in Taiwan for another week before returning to the US as my permanent residence, and that I did not have any other major plans for returning, the attendant indicated that as long as I didn’t enroll in the NHI I shouldn’t need to do anything else.
On the other hand, when I was doing my paperwork downstairs, they also handed me a set of papers that seemed to indicate that once my household registration is active, I was supposed to be enrolled and subject to the premiums within six months. When I called back to the office to clarify, they said that even if I left Taiwan and lived in the US, regardless of whether enrolled or not I would be automatically enrolled in six months and subject to monthly premiums unless I deactivated it in person.
I know this is a bit of an unusual circumstance, but does anyone have more clear guidance on this? If I am a recently minted ROC national with household registration, national ID, but have no plans moving forward to reside in Taiwan for the time being, do I still need to go back and manually apply/deactivate my NHI participation? When I asked originally it seemed like as long as I left soon that it wouldn’t activate, but now I am not sure.
Any insight or experience would be great. Thanks in advance!
it is not within 6 months, but after six months. Unless you are employed by a company or have a record of enrollment to NHI within past 2 years, you have to wait for 6 months to be eligible to NHI.
If you do nothing, you are automatically subject to monthly premiums, after six months. If you are already enrolled in NHI, you can suspend it when you leave taiwan for more than 6 months, but you may not be enrolled yet when you leave. I guess you need to deactivated your household registration when you leave to avoid the automatical enrollment. NHI office may tell you what you should do.
謝謝！I went back to the household registration office and they helped me put in a request to stop「停保」the same day in six months the eligibility would start. That I wouldn’t be charged the NHI premiums.
The attendant explained what you described, and if I were to return on my Taiwan passport temporarily, I would need to return to the office and put in the same request each time. There’s supposed to be a way to do it online but it seems a little more complicated. When I brought it up the attendant said 「你去玩一玩吧」lol