My parents are considering relocating back to Taiwan for their retirement and previously, they had been visiting at least every two years to keep everything current. However, COVID threw that off track and now it’s been 4+ years since they were last in Taiwan.
Their current plan is to go in a few months and start the 6-month waiting period. I’m concerned about what they should do for healthcare coverage during that waiting period. I’ve looked at expat/worldwide health plans and they are pretty costly, if even available. My parents are in their 80’s, which probably exacerbates the situation.
I’m looking at this from the perspective of someone in the US and can’t really read Chinese.
Does anyone know if there is a private healthcare plan that my parents can pay for while they’re in Taiwan and waiting 6 months for their NHI coverage to kick in?
Thanks for any insight!
Yeah you could buy something like Cigna global private insurance
My dad went for long periods without insurance in Taiwan, and it generally wasn’t really an issue, from an American perspective - it was generally cheaper in Taiwan without health insurance than in the US with. 
Thanks - I’m looking at the CIGNA plan, which is pricey, but better than anything else I’ve found so far. Is it fair to say that there’s no private insurance offered by a company in Taiwan? My mom is pretty paranoid about coverage and, given that they’ve lived in the US for nearly 60 years, they have a very skewed perspective on the cost of healthcare.
Of course there is private medical insurance, from companies like Nanshan and Cathay, for example, or banks like Bank of Taiwan. It is wise to have the extra coverage for stuff like caretakers, private room, extra medicine, disability or cancer. Payment of course depends on previous conditions and age, which means your parents will pay a bit…but still cheaper than US. My agent speaks English.
Common hospital visits without NHI would start at 600 NTD.
As a reference point, I have supplemental health and accident insurance through Cathay and I pay about NT14,000 (US$450) a year. I’m 60 years old. There are variables such as coverage amounts and age, but there’s a starting point to compare.
I’m not promoting Cathay, but here’s a link so you can get an idea of one company. Some of the more detailed pages will be in Chinese but you can use Google Translate if you can’t read them.
I don’t think any insurance company in Taiwan would offer health insurance to octogenarians…
Indeed - that’s the fear I have.
Do your parents have medicare in the US? Some medicare plans have a little international coverage, and you can go back for anything major.
They do, but so far I have turned up anything related to international coverage on their plans. I think their current plan is to go to Taiwan, get their waiting period started, come back to the US and wait for 6 months before heading back to Taiwan when coverage is in-force. The only issue with this is that my dad’s not in great health, so I worry about him doing that much flying back and forth.
Not sure what state they are in, but you can lookup on gov site for plans in your state with international coverage
For example this one is in Washington state: Medicare Advantage HMO-POS Plans | Aetna Medicare
“ER and urgent care coverage worldwide”
Typically they reimburse afterwards within some limits
I paid for ER, surgery, and a month in the hospital for my dad 2 years ago. We looked at flying back to the US after he stabilized for care, but paying for the surgery out of pocket in Taiwan w/out insurance was less (comically so) than the cost of the deductible and coinsurance would’ve been in the US. ymmv, depending on supplemental plans.
Almost anywhere is cheaper than the United States. Heck, even paying out of pocket in Canada is cheaper than the USA.
Yea you’re really better off paying out of pocket in Taiwan.
What I did during the 6 months is buy whatever meds I need from a pharmacy, and the cheapest ones that I can use to stabilize my condition. Some meds can be quite expensive without NHI subsidizing it!
They don’t need to be in Taiwan for those 6 months?
Yes, unfortunately. Cathay that I mentioned above has this information, but I don’t know the difference between ‘coverage age’ 承保年齡 and ‘payment period’ 繳費期間
They cannot enter then just leave and get NHI. They have to reside in Taiwan for 6 months first. If they leave they have to start again. This prevents grifters from abusing the healthcare system. Aged people often have medical condition.
Due to your parents age some companies may not offer them insurance. No resident or citizen was prevented during covid from entering Taiwan
I’m wondering whether there might be some subtleties here based on the status of the parents? I get the impression from OP’s first post that the parents are Taiwanese nationals who have been abroad for a long time but previously had household registration. Does the six-month waiting period definitely apply here too?
I can’t be bothered spending loads of time reading through NHI regulations at the moment, but maybe Article 8 of the National Health Insurance Act and this previous thread (there are probably more threads too) might be relevant?
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=L0060001
I lived in Taiwan for a few years before getting NHI (admittedly I wasn’t 80+ years old at the time), and I got the impression that local plans providing comprehensive health insurance as an alternative to NHI (as opposed to supplementary plans offering additional benefits) aren’t that common.
I don’t remember reading of any anyway, and I did look into it a couple of times. I guess there’s not that much of a market for plans like that. There are international health insurance plans of course, like @jimbob132 mentioned, as well as travel insurance plans that might cover some emergency stuff, but I can’t imagine they’d be cheap for octogenarians (possibly also more expensive when applying from the U.S.?).
I’ve had to wait the 6 months too, it has nothing to do with citizenship or whatever. It’s just the rule.
Maybe the wife can find a part time job and get nhi immediately this way? I’m not sure what the rule is on that.
Yes
I’m sure that in her 80’s that’s a solid plan TL.