If able one can hire a temporary caregiver. It’s easy to get one on a daily basis at the hospital.
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Yep.
You can pay someone, even someone to be there 24/7. It’s dirt cheap.
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Hospitals often have private carers you can pay yourself. You can also look online.
There are also people who come around offering things like washing and haircuts.
Nurses only do medical nurse things.
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There are often optionals. Like NHI may not cover the latest in cancer drugs or the latest models of stents or pacemakers. You pay yourself for those things.
I think like with dental they may now cover basic dentures but you aren’t going to get the best porcelain.
Last I heard crowns aren’t covered but the root canal is and they’d just put a basic filling in.
As I recall we had to pay out of pocket for a spinal block injection to help with pain when my wife gave birth.
But I also recall years ago a friend getting stents and they weren’t covered. But now they are, only not the latest.
Anyway more and more gets covered after a period is how it seems to work.
Perhaps they use this as a way to grow?
I remember way back there was like a 15,000-20,000 deposit for a phone landline. I assume to help build the infrastructure. It was the same in Korea.
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Baller. How much do you think is dirt cheap?
This is something many places around the world should learn. After the initial confusion I think it’s much more fair towards every one how it works in taiwan. NHI pays for medical stuff, not food etc.
Cheap enough that it was somewhat embarrassing and I felt a bit like it was taking advantage. It was 2019 last time we did it, so I don’t recall exactly, but I want to say it was a good chunk less than US $50/day for 24/7 support from a English speaking Filipino helper for my parent.
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That’s good to know, thanks @Poundsand. Was that arranged through the hospital, or through an external provider?
Recommendation from the doctor; I don’t know the arrangement exactly, if it was officially a hospital thing or someone / some service he knew. This was at Mackay Zhuwei.
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I doubt you got the short term ones in the hospital for under 50 dollars a night. The ones at the hospitals cost more than that. 3k plus a day if i remember. Adds up if you have someone in the hospital long term. Not dirt cheap for the average guy. Not saying it should be less because i wouldnt do it for that price. Just disagreeing that it is dirt cheap. Especially if it is for more than a few days.
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On the question of optional upgrades, I had an experience with that. Had surgery a few years ago to remove 1/2 my thyroid, at Hsinchu Mackay. They brought up the upgrades and costs up front, there was some tool they could use that they said would make things less painful and shorten recovery time. And there was something else like that, don’t recall at the moment, which I also said yes to. Also I upgraded from a 4-person room to a double. Cost of all of these upgrades was just over NT$50K, which I would have owed above what NHI covered. But guess what: Labor Insurance to the rescue, NLI kicked in $50K so the whole thing cost me a few thousand bucks. And, except for the fact that my one roommate was a little loud at times, the whole thing was smoothly executed and about as painless as such things can be.
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It’s more like the latest stuff tends to have really high cost as pharma companies need to make profit on it. Also like many universal single payer healthcare, NHI does collective bargaining with pharma companies to lower the price, and that does take time to do. It isn’t something individuals or even insurance companies can do.
Seems to work.
And for those without family or the finances to pay then I think government social services will assist.
Some may be interested to know also that if a bill is too big then monthly payments are possible.
The hospital Social Services office can help with all such questions including that of caregivers. Usually on the first floor.
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Thanks! All ok now!
It was the doctor at the hospital that asked if I wanted to have the basic NHI covered steel implants or better materials that I needed to pay myself. Same with medication, the NHI covered medicine or US imported pills. My wife handled all of those things so not exactly certain how the discussion went
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