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How Taiwan does it: seeing more patients for less.

Article Excerpt
Taiwan is the most recent advanced economy to adopt a universal health insurance program, more specifically, a single-payer national health insurance program financed through the combination of premiums and taxes.

However, even after eight years, Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) program has received little attention from the American health policy community who continue to recognize a need for change in America's own health care system.

This is perhaps because Taiwan is not a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which provide worldwide data and analysis for health policymakers. (1)

Although the U.S. may never adopt a single-payer system, Taiwan's experience still offers lessons for the current Medicare system. (1) One interesting fact that sets Taiwan apart from other developed countries is that Taiwanese physicians see approximately 50 percent more patients than their counterparts in the U.S. on a weekly basis. (2)

The average number of patients seen by a physician for a primary care office visit per week in Taiwan is 128 compared to 85 in the U.S. (2)

Taiwan also recently recorded the highest average number of outpatient visits per capita in the world. (3) The average number of outpatient visits in Taiwan per person per year is 11.8 compared to 5.8 in the U.S. (4)

However, Taiwan has a modest health care expenditure as measured by total health spending as a percent of GDP, and comparable health status indicators when compared to other...