ABSTRACT
The nature of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) is a combination of social insurance and social assistance. The NHI in Taiwan is a compulsory programme. One of the major objectives of the NHI programme is income redistribution. Thus the use of average income per capita as the reference point is inadequate, especially for small households. In order to find the pattern of relative medical expenditure in terms of total expenditure for lower-income households across the years, Z scores have been calculated. Subsidization rates are different according to the method of financing, lower rates being associated with increasing the premiums for higher income groups. The primary recipients should be those with low and/or middle-to-low income and poor health. If the subsidies are distributed to higher-income groups or provide them with a greater proportionate share of the subsidy, then the medical resources allocation is inefficient.
