Developing an adequate supply of health services: Taiwan's path to Universal Health Coverage

Taiwan was the last state in the 20th century to achieve UHC when it implemented the National Health Insurance (NHI) program in 1995. Political timing was crucial in the government's decision to achieve UHC, but the key to its success in providing effective coverage to its 23 million population was the readiness of the health service sector, the result of two decades of planning and development in the pre-NHI period. This paper analyzes how Taiwan historically built up the supply of health services that made achieving UHC possible. We identified four key strategies adopted in the health service sector development, namely: 1) enhancing public-private partnerships in developing medical resources with tax incentives and subsidies; 2) ameliorating regional disparities in medical resource distribution through incentives and effective regulation; 3) safeguarding quality of care by regulating providers through licensing and accreditation programs; and 4) promoting an evidence-based policy-making process.