Premier Jiang Yi-huah today directed the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) to work more closely with the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) to create a health care environment that meets the needs of indigenous communities and improves their health.
"The CIP should combine indigenous knowledge and resources and tailor health care and medical services according to aboriginal cultures and customs," the premier said at the weekly Cabinet meeting, after the CIP reported on strategies for promoting health among indigenous communities.
The indigenous population has a shorter average life expectancy than other Taiwanese citizens, largely due to the influences of their cultures and traditional ways of living, Jiang said. Over the years, the CIP has implemented a raft of measures to improve their health, such as preventing accidental injuries, encouraging reduction of alcohol intake, rewarding tuberculosis patients for completing treatment, and subsidizing health insurance and other medical care expenses. The premier said such efforts have narrowed the life expectancy gap between indigenous peoples and all other groups from 10 years to 8.7 years, but that there remains much room for improvement. He thus asked the CIP and the MOHW to continue these efforts.
The CIP said its strategies for promoting indigenous health include several components:
• Preventing accidents and injuries; encouraging alcohol moderation; providing group accidental insurance; and organizing "3H" (happiness, hope and health) events that include cultural activities, health exams and exercise contests.
• Setting up indigenous community day care stations for the elderly.
• Subsidizing National Health Insurance premiums for indigenous people, and providing travel expenses for remote residents seeking medical care.
• Offering tuberculosis patients incentives for being cured.
• Conducting research on indigenous health issues.
According to the CIP, many indigenous citizens are engaged in manual labor and thus have higher exposure to occupational hazards. To fill gaps in the social welfare system for the economically disadvantaged, the CIP began offering group accidental insurance for indigenous people in 2012 as a basic layer of protection against unexpected injuries.
To further protect the rights of disadvantaged indigenous citizens to medical care, in 1998 the CIP began subsidizing insurance premiums for those under 20 or over 55 years of age, and who fall into category 6, item 2 of the National Health Insurance Act, or into categories 2 or 3 and live in the Lanyu area. Now, over 99 percent of indigenous people are enrolled in the National Health Insurance system. The number of indigenous people who have had their insurance card locked due to unpaid premiums also fell to 970 (compared with 39,000 nationwide) as of December 2013, a significant decline from 27,000 in September 2011.