Vice President Chen Chien-jen (second right) greets Cheng Tsung-mei (center), a health policy research analyst at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, at the Office of the President Feb. 1 in Taipei City. (Courtesy of Office of the President)

Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system owes a debt of gratitude to academics and experts for their contributions to promoting international awareness of the nation’s medical care, public health and disease prevention efforts, according to Vice President Chen Chien-jen Feb. 1.

Chen said the research conducted by such individuals has helped the NHI gain exposure overseas and provided the world with a better understanding of the system’s far-reaching benefits.

The vice president made the remarks while receiving Cheng Tsung-mei, a health policy research analyst at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, at the Office of the President in Taipei City. Like her husband Uwe E. Reinhardt, who passed away late last year, Cheng has long been a prominent advocate for Taiwan’s NHI system, Chen said.

Co-founder and host of the Princeton Conference—an annual event enabling scientists and members of U.S. Congress to gather and discuss health care issues—Cheng has performed analyses of Taiwan’s NHI system that have received widespread attention from major news outlets like ABC, CNN and PBS, the vice president said.

In 2009, Cheng’s article “Lessons from Taiwan’s Universal National Health Insurance” was published in the Maryland-based peer-reviewed health care journal Health Affairs. She has also served as an adviser to the Council for Economic Planning and Development, which merged with other government commissions to become the Cabinet-level National Development Council in 2014.

Following the reception at the Office of the President, Cheng traveled to the Ministry of Health and Welfare where she received the Health Services Medal of the Second Order for her contributions to raising awareness of Taiwan’s universal health care system.

Reinhardt, a noted academic, played an important role in the early development of the NHI, persuading officials to shape it after successful Western models and recommending the single-payer system. For his efforts, he was awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon in 2015.

Scholars such as Cheng and Reinhardt have contributed greatly to the NHI, Chen said, adding that he hopes Cheng can also help promote Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the World Health Organization as well as its decision-making body, the World Health Assembly. Taiwan’s involvement in the WHA is imperative to maintaining a complete global health network, he said.

Taiwan participated in the annual WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016 following 38 years of exclusion. Its involvement is widely recognized as having helped strengthen global disease prevention efforts. (KWS-E)