And doctors in Taiwan are heavily influenced by institutional politics and financial reasons to produce their medical opinions and recommendations, and are less honest and straightforward to patients.
I think it’s similar in the US. I’ve spoken to a good number of doctors and they all have to play this kind of games to boost their earnings. A good number of them don’t even recommend their profession to others. Not sure what the requirements are to be a doctor outside of the US but it’s quite a heavy load to become a doctor in America. The number of years and the amount in student loans is quite the burden for many.
That has not been my experience in U.S., but YMMV.
This remains a problem, of course. It’s different in how drugs are bought and price controlled. As an example. Also the controlled drugs regulations. Not so long ago it was ibuprofen and asprlirin out of surgery and the nurses would help you ge o he bathroom. We have serious issues here in healh care! Either way, discussing the USA system is only avoiding talking about our problems domestically.
I still think the doctors in Taiwan are more calculating for their own benefits, and not thinking for the best interest of the patients.
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Does Taiwan have their own version of the Hippocratic Oath?
You know better than I do.
It’s spelled hypocratic 
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Do you guys have any recommedations for private health insurances? Not exactly which package you have, but which company is good? Or are they all basically the same? Is there any easy way to compare them?
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I recently discovered that my wife is paying some exaggerated premiums for some health insurances. Something around 400.000 NTD each year for 20 years so she can get up to 4-5 million NTD in case of some sickness. I mean is this even legal? How in the world they would have such kind of insurances here? Anyone knows why some premiums are so expensive?
Am I missing out here something?
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Damn, that sounds like a really bad deal…
From my (albeit rather superficial) research, I also had the feeling that lots of the private insurance in Taiwan is not really “worth it” as they often cap the benefits to a rather low amount. So if one truly gets seriously ill, the insurance will still cover only parts of it. But your example looks especially bad…
They might be savings-linked insurance policies. Used to be very common in Taiwan. Not sure about now.
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Age, weight and preconditions shape what you pay., plus what you receive.
I am a foreigner, oversize Chinese and with lots of previous conditions, including surgery and high blood pressure and I do not pay half as much, plus mine covers daily care and cancer drugs which can be very expensive.
Doesn’t sound right to me. Is normally around 20k/30k a year.
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It’s probably a combined life and health policy.
They pay out an annuity after 20 years or so.
She should explain to you if that is the case , no way the premiums for a regular health policy should be that high.
As FOC said they used to be really common back in the day but the premium still shouldn’t be that big.
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I asked her, it has most of the illnesses and cancer, also hospitalization included there, and even cure and treatment, which for me, coming from Europe, we usually have them included already in one (a huge list of illnesses and diseases cancer so on). Also these are just health insurances, nothing combined with any sort of life insurance or savings account something . The thing that mind boggles me is that it’s extremely expensive and the benefits are very very little almost nothing. I totally feel it’s a ripoff. Was wondering if any other expat here encountered this
Yes! right? She is 39 years old, no medical condition, no history of some disease, normal weight
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All the time, but not that high. Usually a family member like the mother or a friend will sell to them. But usually smaller amount so the pressure to help a “friend” is higher. For example a 3k a year “hiking insurance”, “maybe once you got a baby insurance”, etc. Pure scam.
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The older generation bought insurance like crazy because there was basically no social safety net until the 1990s unless you were a member of the protected classes.
I guess some younger people still follow their example.
I will say that a cancer policy bought as a favor to friend decades ago has literally been a lifesaver to a member of my family. Many of the more recent targeted therapies and immunotherapy are still not covered by the NHI or not covered flexibly enough.
The Lai administration says it will make more funding available to cover some of that soon. I believe they intend to do it but we’ll see.
Your situation sounds like overkill. But keep in my mind that different views on finances are one of the to reasons for divorce. Proceed with caution.
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Well, my health insurance agent also sells kind of like “bonds”, which can be a bit higher than normal yearly health insurance costs but are short term - or as long as you like- and accumulate interests like up to 4%, making them a nice emergency fund - I’m talking from experience, when I asked for it back, it was a nice plump sum that got us over a family emergency.
Maybe it is that kind of thing?
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