It doesn’t. The 6-month waiting period for NHI only starts when the ARC was issued, and being here under a visa exemption specifically doesn’t count. The ROC ID number doesn’t mean anything here.
Even if it did, OP wouldn’t have the choice to get NHI when they feel like it. They would be required to sign up (although I imagine people could get away with not doing so if they’re not intending to come back to Taiwan).
I’m currently looking into SafetyWing, since they let you sign up while being abroad and cover Covid-19.
I do have asthma, which they of course consider a pre-existing condition. I will be in contact with the sales team to see if it could be ground to deny my claim to a Covid-19 treatment if it ever happened.
It might be a good choice for those of you who also don’t have insurance like me!
I got the ROC number 5 years ago when on 14 day holiday in Taiwan.
Friend I was visiting advised me to as I could sign up to NHI and open a bank account useful if I decided to return.
Admitting I have never tried and took his word for it.
I have on occasions used when passport number is required, I say oh I have a ARC number but forgot my card, gets accepted each time.
My easy card, phone contract and couple other stuff used it for.
So it’s worth having.
I haven’t said it’s not worth having. I’m just saying it doesn’t affect your NHI eligibility - you still need to be considered resident here for that and do the 6-month waiting period since getting an ARC, unless you’re employed here.
And yeah, you can also use it to open bank accounts, but I believe the number of banks that accept it nowadays is a lot lower than it used to be several years ago.
Need I say more.
It’s not really relevant, but in Canada you don’t pay out of pocket for medical services as long as you have coverage in one of the provinces in Canada. There may be rare exceptions, but I don’t know of anyone living in Canada who has ever paid for medical treatment in Canada. It is one of the reasons income tax is sky-high in Canada.
What if you don’t have coverage?
Who doesn’t have coverage in Canada? Travellers I suppose.
Some provinces have wait times when you return as a resident, but some don’t (like Manitoba, where I got my health insurance days off of the plane). Even then, I am pretty sure they won’t refuse treatment, and the insurance becomes retroactive as a resident. And if you are not living in Canada, you could simply just not pay, and just leave after receiving treatment - it would just be a bill owed for healthcare in Canada. Though you would have trouble with your credit if you ever wanted to live in Canada.
Not that I am recommending doing this in any way however, but it is stated in reaction to the very American assumption (not saying that you are American by the way) that everyone pays outlandish amounts for healthcare; the opposite seems to be true - most developed countries have some form of government health insurance that works (for the most part) and the US is the outlier in relation to health insurance and paying for medical care.