Taiwan's Health Minister Fires Back at "The Lancet" Criticism of Healthcare System

Chiu Tai-yuan Defends National Health Insurance Against Accusations of Systemic Collapse.

Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan's Minister of Health and Welfare, Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源), has strongly refuted claims made in a recent letter published in "The Lancet" medical journal, which depicted Taiwan's healthcare system as being "on the brink of systemic collapse." The Minister stated the letter contained numerous inaccuracies and unfairly impacted the morale of frontline healthcare workers.

Chiu announced the government's intention to formally respond to "The Lancet," clarifying the situation and staunchly defending Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) system.

The April 26th letter, penned by Li Jing-xing (李景行) and Hsu Shu-bai (許漱白) from China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, argued that systemic weaknesses within Taiwan's healthcare infrastructure became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors asserted, "The deterioration of the health-care system is attributable to structural policy myopia, rigid global budget payments, systemic inequalities, and fragmented primary care and referral systems." Li and Hsu are affiliated with the hospital's internal medicine and nursing departments, respectively.

The letter further contended that Taiwan's COVID-19 mortality rate for hospitalized patients during the 2022 Omicron surge reached 58.2 percent, significantly higher than Japan's 12.5 percent. The authors attributed this discrepancy to insufficient intensive care capacity and policy shortcomings.

Minister Chiu disputed these figures, providing counter-statistics. He stated that during the 2022 Omicron wave, Taiwan reported 8.85 million confirmed cases and approximately 14,600 deaths, resulting in a case fatality rate of 0.16 percent, a figure that was, in fact, lower than Japan's 0.2 percent.

He emphasized that the use of incorrect data to criticize Taiwan's healthcare system was "deeply unfair" to the dedicated medical professionals serving the nation.

Addressing concerns regarding nursing shortages, Chiu clarified that Taiwan currently has 83 nurses per 10,000 people, not 62 as cited in the letter. He highlighted this as placing Taiwan among the top-performing nations globally, while acknowledging that there remains room for enhancement.

He further underscored that this year's National Health Insurance budget received its largest increase ever, demonstrating the government's ongoing commitment to bolstering the system.