The Bureau of National Health Insurance paid about 70 billion NT dollars per year for drugs for outpatients, which accounted about one-fourth of the total medical expenses, and brought a very great effect to the financial condition of the national health insurance program. This project is to study the feasibility of having the outpatients to buy drugs by themselves without cost sharing by referring to the policies adopted in the advanced nations.
The purposes of the study are: (1) reviewing the payment for drugs and the payment system in the advanced nations with social medical insurance or
national health care programs; (2) discussing the effect of readjusting out-patients to purchasing the drug by themselves like Canada to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the public, and the hospital medical and pharmaceutical industries; and (3) evaluating the feasibility of such a change from the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the pharmaceutical industry, medical care providers and the public.?4?the results are discussed to provide a reference for determining the policy in the national health insurance program.
In addition to review on literatures published by some international publications, the study mainly include analysis on the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the public and the medical care/drugs providers for a feasibility that can benefit all of them. First, descriptive analysis is used first by referring to the data about medical expenses applied by the contracted hospitals and clinics under the National Health Insurance data base during 2001 September to December in order to review the effect of such change to the financial condition of the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the change the medical care providers? income in different diseases and in different classes of hospital/clinic, and the change on financial burden of the public. Second, the insured, medical and pharmaceutical industry?s degree of acceptance to this change is then discussed by questionaire method. Finally, the data are sorted and the results are discussed to provide a reference for determining the policy in the national health insurance program.
