NHI premium rate to remain unchanged in 2025

Taipei, Dec. 13 (CNA) The National Health Insurance (NHI) premium rate will remain unchanged next year at 5.17 percent, according to the committee under the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) responsible for reviewing the premiums.

The amount of the NHI reserve fund, which functions like an emergency fund for a household, is projected to be sufficient to cover around two months of insurance payouts by the end of 2025 under the current premium rate of 5.17 percent, the National Health Insurance Committee (NHIC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to Article 78 of the National Health Insurance Act, the aggregate amount of the reserve fund "shall be equal to the aggregate amount of benefit payments in the most recent one to three months based on actuarial principles."

In view of the projected sufficiency of the NHI reserve fund, the NHIC has submitted its decision to maintain the current NHI premium rate to the MOHW, which will forward it to the Executive Yuan for approval, the committee said.

The NHIC added that the discrepancies between estimated and actual NHI financial figures from 2021 to 2024 exceeded NT$10 billion (US$ 307 million) and highlighted a trend of growing discrepancies, without specifying whether the actual figures were higher or lower than the estimates.

The National Health Insurance Administration, the government agency that oversees the NHI, needs to carefully analyze the causes of discrepancies between financial projections and actual figures and explore improvement measures to enhance the accuracy of future financial estimates for long-term fiscal stability, the committee said.