President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of March 17 bestowed the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon on Dr. William Ching-Lung Hsiao (蕭慶倫), K.T. Li Research Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Dr. Uwe Ernst Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University to recognize their outstanding contributions in assisting the ROC to plan its National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
At a ceremony held at the Presidential Office Building, President Ma stated that Dr. Hsiao is internationally renowned for his research in health care payment systems and the design of social and private insurance. Dr. Hsiao has served as a policy advisor for three US presidents and also as an economic advisor to the Senate, while also participating in the planning of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Discussing Dr. Hsiao's contributions to the ROC's NHI system, the president said that the Executive Yuan's Council for Economic Planning and Development back in 1988 established an NHI planning task force. At that time, Dr. Hsiao was invited to serve as a general consultant for the first stage planning of the NHI system. He assisted the ROC government in designing and planning the system, and is widely referred to as the chief architect of the preliminary system, the president said. In 1995 the ROC began implementation of the NHI system and Dr. Hsiao has since continued to assist in system development. In 2004, the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) mechanism designed by Dr. Hsiao was introduced into the system, helping to reasonably reflect cost variances and the consumption of resources in medical services, thereby increasing the fairness of payments made by the NHI system to medical providers.
President Ma then discussed the contributions made by Dr. Reinhardt in this regard. He stated that Professor Reinhardt has written articles on the ROC's NHI system that have been published in international publications. For instance, he was the author of "Humbled in Taiwan," published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 and "Taiwan's Progress on Health Care" that appeared in The New York Times in 2012. Professor Reinhardt not only lavished praise on the NHI system here, but also emphasized the administrative efficiency of Taiwan's NHI system, at the same time suggesting that the United States learn from Taiwan's experience.
The president said that Dr. Reinhardt's wife, Tsung-Mei Cheng (鄭宗美), has also closely followed the development of Taiwan's NHI system. In 2009 she published an article in Health Affairs, a renowned academic journal, entitled "Lessons From Taiwan's Universal National Health Insurance: A Conversation With Taiwan's Health Minister Ching-Chuan Yeh." Then Minister Yeh (葉金川) previously served as the first general manager of the Bureau of National Health Insurance. This article enabled the international community to become aware of the outstanding success of Taiwan's NHI program. It also was pivotal in Mr. Yeh being invited to appear at a US Senate hearing in 2014 to describe Taiwan's NHI system, the president said, adding that Mr. Yeh became the first former ROC official to be invited to provide testimony before the US Senate.
The president stated that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the ROC's NHI system. Past developments indicate that the system has realized the functions of its original design, becoming an economically efficient and reliable safety net.
The two recipients of the honors, Dr. Hsiao and Dr. Reinhardt, then each expressed their deepest gratitude. Professor Reinhardt pointed out that the success of Taiwan's NHI program is not only due to the foresight of the nation's leaders, but is also the result of the outstanding efforts of civil servants. Their contributions have been a driving force in promoting the nation's advancement, he said.
Among those present to witness the ceremony were Mrs. Reinhardt, American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Deputy Director Brent Christensen, Secretary-General to the President Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), and Huang San-kuei (黃三桂), Director General of the National Health Insurance Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare.