I am considering moving to Taiwan via the Gold Card program and have a question about NHI.
I am employed by a US company as a W2 employee. My company will provide me with very good international health insurance and therefore I would not need NHI.
I understand that as a W2 employee of a foreign (not Taiwan) company I would not be immediately eligible for NHI. I would have to spend 6 continuous months in Taiwan (with an exception for trips under 30 days) before I would be required to sign up for NHI.
Is this right?
If so, if I take a trip of more than 30 days before I ever hit the 6 continuous months in Taiwan mark, does that mean I would never become elgible for NHI and legally could avoid having to participate?
If you’re not even here and you’re already trying to find loopholes to skirt local laws at a considerably higher expense to yourself than just having the NHI, then it is possible Taiwan may not be for you.
Unless you are a tourist or illegal alien in Taiwan, nhi is mandatory.
So save your international coverage for anything nhi doesn’t cover. It will save your company a lot of money and they will thank you.
Quite frankly lack of a universal healthcare in the us costs companies a ton of money, and companies should be lobbying to mandate universal healthcare, but I guess health insurance companies have bigger lobby. This makes the us extremely uncompetitive in the world.
Can’t be bothered looking up the regulations again, but I believe the other part of the 6 continuous months in Taiwan with one trip of under 30 days allowed is the “one” – I think if you make more than one trip in every 6-month period (even a very short one, like going somewhere nearby for the weekend) you never become eligible.
I wouldn’t say this is really a loophole – it’s how the rules are at present. There have been a few of us who would have liked to become eligible for NHI faster but had to wait the six months. I remember one person posting that he’d basically never become eligible because he had to travel frequently for business.
This is a situation where NHI isn’t mandatory for people living in Taiwan (i.e., they’d have their home here, hold an ARC, be tax-resident, but not be considered resident for NHI, because of how the regulations are written).
That’s different though, the point is, trying to take flights, paying two rents or hotel/rent JUST for the purpose of avoiding NHI because it presumably feels like a sunk cost, IMO is a bit different than being ineligible because they’re never here.
I don’t think it makes sense financially if OP only has foreign income (because NHI will be cheap)… but given that a fair few gold card holders have been forced to wait the six months after moving here, I don’t really have much of a problem with someone who wants to avoid NHI for some reason doing this…
I’d be surprised if NHI isn’t worth it though, if only for convenience when dealing with minor stuff. Might even be cheaper than using the U.S. insurance.
The real loophole is that they will only charge your the minimum amount (around NT$ 850 per month) if you don’t have a Taiwanese employer. Not much use in trying to find another loophole to avoid even paying that.
It’s entirely possible OP didn’t know how inexpensive it is when someone doesn’t have local income (I actually think this is more of an oversight than anything else - it’s just the usual Taiwanese-government-not-thinking-about-foreigners stuff, but one of the very rare cases where it actually works in the favor of a small minority of foreigners).
Nhi is good because it means you’ll visit doctors a lot and so any problems can be treated instead of waiting for it to become big requiring heroic intervention.
OP could have read the forums first and found that information posted already very recently. There is a search function but a lot of people never use it.
Yeah, they could have done, but that doesn’t mean they did. As with any online forum, many questions here are repetitive.
As I’ve said, I agree NT$826 isn’t a lot and probably not worth trying to avoid, but I believe it’s also multiplied when someone has dependents (though doesn’t look like that’s the case here).
And even if saving NT$826 every month isn’t a huge amount, we’ve also had people here discussing whether they can enter Taiwan on different passports rather than on their A(P)RC/Taiwanese passport for a chance at a one-time win of NT$5000 of travel vouchers that aren’t really aimed at them. Maybe the judgement is unnecessary, that’s all.
