Q1: What is National Health Insurance (NHI)? What is the coverage of the NHI program?
A1: NHI is a compulsory social insurance, every Taiwanese citizen with household registration or foreign national living in Taiwan with an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), regardless of age, gender, or employment status, must enroll in the program. The insured are legally obligated to pay for their premium and have equal rights to access medical care when they fall ill.
Q2: What is the qualification for foreign professionals to be an insured of NHI? How to enroll in the NHI program?
A2: People who obtain an employment in Taiwan, get the work permit under the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals and their ARCs, shall enroll in the NHI program by their company (formally known as the “group insurance applicant”) from the day they are employed. Additionally the foreign professionals, foreign specialist professionals, and foreign senior professionals become employers or self-employed owners of professional business in item 4, subparagraph 1, paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the National Health Insurance Act in Taiwan, shall apply as a group insurance applicant through National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) branch office, then finish the enrollment for themselves from the day their business is founded.
Q3: What are the qualifications for spouses, minor children, and children in age of majority who are unable to live independently due to physical or mental disability of foreign professionals to enroll in National Health Insurance?
A3: Those who obtain the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), spouses, minor children, and children in age of majority who are unable to live independently due to physical or mental disability of employed foreign professionals, foreign specialist professionals and foreign senior professionals or foreign specialist professionals and foreign senior professionals who are employers or self-employed business owners, shall enroll in the NHI program upon receipt of their resident certificates.
Q4: How are premiums calculated and collected for foreign professionals, as well as their dependents?
A4: The premiums for wage-earners are based on their monthly salary； for employers and self-employed owners of professional business based on their business income according to the Grading Table of insured payroll-related amount, and reported by their group insurance applicant. The formula for calculating premiums is: Insured amount X insurance premium rate X contribution ratio X (1+number of dependents) The premiums to be contributed by the employee, employer, or self-employed person shall be deducted from the payroll and paid by the group insurance applicants to the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), together with the group insurance applicant’s contributions. The premiums for those dependents are calculated in the same way as for the insured and shall be paid by the insured.
Q5: Qualifications for foreigners to join the National Health Insurance:
A5:
- Foreign resident who holds a resident certificate in Taiwan shall participate in National Health Insurance after a full 6 months of residence (having continuously stayed in Taiwan for 6 months, or having stayed in Taiwan for actual 6 months with a departure for less than 30 days, and the actual duration of residence should exclude the number of days staying abroad). However, those who have been employed legally can join NHI upon the date of employment. From December 1, 2017 newborn foreign infant who obtains a resident certificate in Taiwan shall join NHI upon the date of birth.
- In accordance with the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, employed foreign professionals, foreign specialist professionals and foreign senior professionals or foreign specialist professionals and foreign senior professionals who are employers or self-employed business owners have to enroll in the NHI program from the day they are employed and their business is founded. Their spouses, minor children, and physically or mentally disabled adult children who are unable to live independently, holding a resident certificate in Taiwan , shall immediately join the NHI program upon receipt of their resident certificates.
- Foreign resident will lose NHI entitlement once his/her resident certificate expires, and should withdraw from the NHI.
- For other NHI-related inquiries, please visit our official website (https://www.nhi.gov.tw) or call the NHI Consultation Service Hotline at 0800-030598.