In the past couple months, as a new arrival to Taiwan (with admittedly low linguistic and cultural competence), I had a couple negative experiences with the healthcare system. I’d like to be able to view the system positively, but I just haven’t had those experiences yet.
I would really love to hear personal stories of great experiences with the healthcare system as a counterweight, whether dealing with mild issues or serious ones. I recognize that this is kind of asking for health details people might not be excited to share publicly, so feel free to be as vague as you want.
Well it’s really affordable. This means you go to doctors more often and stuff gets treated before you end up in the ER or have to have expensive treatments. It’s designed so that it reduces healthcare cost for everyone.
I think all the medical care I’ve had in Taiwan would have cost me (or the insurance company) no less than 50,000 dollars (and they’d inflate this too) if done in the US. We’re talking ultrasounds, sleep study, X rays, and various drugs that costs a lot in the US.
I had a sleep study done and it was like around 1000nt. Not sure what it costs in the US but I heard it’s not cheap.
Like with every system you gotta know what to tell the doctor, and you gotta do it quick too. I’m not sure what’s your negative experience. No system is perfect, but medical care that you can afford is better than world class care that you can’t afford.
I worked for a well-known high tech company after government work in Taiwan. I had some colon-related discomfort and they were able to schedule me a meeting with one of Taiwan’s pre-eminent specialists within a day. Try that in Canada.
You get any types of pills you ask for (or the generic equivalent) after seeing a doctor for just 5 minutes. Plus lots of bonus pills you didn’t even know existed.
Last summer, my family was visiting from the U.S. We’re not Taiwanese citizens. My daughter was having a problem with her eye. We went to Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei because it was open on Sunday. After seeing two doctors (one for triage then an eye specialist), they diagnosed it as a cornel abrasion, gave her meds, and sent us off. The whole thing cost us very little–the same as a U.S. copay, which was astounding to me.
Great experience, excellent care. It’s a single-payer compulsory health care system that really works.
ER a while back for biking accident.
Walked in, saw doctors within 10 minutes. A few sutures in lip, chest x-ray, CT of my head with a short observation period and then released.
Something like 600 with a few meds.
6 months ago, 2-3 hours surgery filling up the body with plates, screws and spikes. 8 days in hospital. Cost around 130k ntd in addition to NHI as chosed better materials, meds and single room.
Awesome treatment and care.
No clue how much this would cost in other countries as luckily this kind of accident has been a once in a life time experience
Me personally, I’ve had average experiences with doctors. Most of them are more interested in prescribing a ridiculous amount of pills than listening to what’s wrong with me.
Dentists I’ve had good experiences with and they seem to be the opposite and only recommend necessary treatments.
A friend of mine broke some bones in their hand and were offered a few treatment options. Some were fully covered by NHI and some not.
Probably all depends on who you get at which hospital/clinic
Any system, particularly a public one, has pros and cons. I can only compare to my home country, Australia. Australia doesn’t have the over prescribing problem but most GPs are not fully covered by the public system but all emergency is fully covered. The means some people just visit emergency wards for non-emergencies. Dental isn’t covered under the public system at all.
Luckily I faced no accidents requiring medical attention in Taiwan. Also luckily the most serious accident I had in Australia was slicing my thumb open with a stanly knife and getting a few stitches. I don’t have any experience with serious accidents or medical issues
I need to get a brain MRI every year, without NHI, it can be around 12000 to 14000 NTD. Fortunately, with NHI, the cost goes down to below 700 NTD. I’ve heard similar stories from people that had to call an ambulance and their final bill was below 500 NTD.
Wow, so sorry to hear that happened to you, but amazing that you were so happy with the treatment! 6 months ago sounds recent for that intensity of surgery, hope you’re doing well now.
Question if you don’t mind: you mentioned choosing better materials and meds, are those things that the normal doctors you’re seeing on NHI offered you unprompted with the caveat that it’d be higher cost? Or did you have to do your own research to ask for those things, or go to a special facility to be offered them?
In my experience, usually they’ll tell you if there’s something that’s considered better/more suitable but isn’t covered by NHI, as well as how much it would cost for the “upgrade”.
That is an interesting aspect of the system, which I agree can be looked at as a positive feature, though I know there’s some controversy about it. I had at least six different medicines prescribed after I visited the hospital for acute gastroenteritis, with instructions to use as relevant. I was a little bemused, but I definitely felt prepared for whatever scenario might arise (barring unexpected drug interactions; I only wound up taking one).
One thing that I’ve heard about the healthcare system in Taiwan, though I have no firsthand experience of this, is that there are some hospital duties provided by nurses or nurse assistants in some countries that are expected to be provided by visiting family members in Taiwan. Changing sheets is one example I’ve heard, though I was led to believe there are more.
Does that sound right? If so, are there good workarounds available for those without family to help? Is the issue more that this sort of task wouldn’t be covered by NHI, but it’s nevertheless offered by the hospital?
All that is a long way of asking, in the spirit of the thread, curious to hear more about good experiences with inpatient care.
