To provide high-quality reproductive health services and provide guidance on family planning, HPA has compiled a health manual for newly married couples. The manual is available on HPA’s official website.
The NHI offers a range of prenatal and postnatal services to ensure a high-quality, supportive medical environment for expectant parents. Services fully covered under the program include 14 prenatal screenings, three obstetric ultrasound appointments, gestational diabetes screening and an anemia test at 24-28 weeks, one Group B streptococcus screening at 35-37 weeks, as well as two consultation sessions on prenatal care. In addition, prenatal genetic diagnostic tests are subsidized. In 2021, expectant mothers underwent an average of 95.6% of the prenatal screenings, while 98.3 percent and 97.6 percent took at least one or at least four of the screenings, respectively. In 2021, Taiwan’s maternal mortality rate was 14 deaths per 100,000 live births. When compared to the 2017 rates among the 185 member states of the World Health Organization, Taiwan ranks 49th, with the mortality rate lower than that of 137 countries.
Vaccination is a vital method of preventing illness and eradicating communicable diseases. For childhood immunization programs, Taiwan currently covers the hepatitis B vaccine; diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, inactivated polio and haemophilus influenza type b conjugate vaccine; pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13); BCG (Bacillus Calmette–Guerin), measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; varicella vaccine; hepatitis A vaccine; Japanese encephalitis vaccine; tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, acellular pertussis and inactivated polio vaccine; and influenza vaccine. These are administered by some 346 health centers and over 1,600 contracted hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Due to the widespread availability of related services, Taiwan’s vaccination rate is over 95 percent for common vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control under the Ministry of Health and Welfare is committed to maintaining high vaccination rates. Taiwan carefully monitors domestic and international trends and strategies to consistently strengthen national immunization policy and introduce new vaccines as appropriate.
Pneumonia care for patients under 5 is a key indicator of treatment standards, as acute respiratory infections (ARI) are one of the leading causes of death for this age group worldwide. In addition, in order to enable children to receive proper medical care, the government formulated the Medical Subsidy Regulations for Children and Youth, which cover inpatient and outpatient treatment of children under the age of three who are enrolled in the National Health Insurance and provide insurance subsidies for children of low and middle income families, strengthen care for children from financially disadvantaged families and reduce family burdens. Owing to these measures, all children under 5 diagnosed with ARI in Taiwan are able to receive appropriate medical care.