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Dr. Hong-Jen Chang, MD, MPH, is the former Director of Taiwan's Bureau of National Health Insurance and a former Director of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control.
He is in residence at USC in the International Public Policy and Management Program for ten days (April 18-26) as a Provost Distinguished Visitor.
Persons wishing to meet Dr. Chang may contact Dr. Joanna Yu at 213.821.1330 or jcyu@usc.edu
It took Taiwan seven years to design, plan, and implement the universal national health insurance system. In March 1995, ten different public insurance schemes each covering a particular subset of the population was centralized by the government. About the same time in the US, President Bill Clintons ambitious plan to provide comprehensive health insurance to all Americans, similar to Taiwans health insurance reform, went down to defeat.
Under the new system in Taiwan, the percent of the population covered by some form of insurance grew from 59% to 96% of the population. The transition years were marked by some chaos and confusion for providers and consumers as Taiwan moved to rapidly implement the system. However, despite the early turmoil, Taiwan created a long-standing system that now has ten years of experience and continues to evolve. Dr. Changs leadership was instrumental in this process. During the years of the system, consumer satisfaction has steadily increased and health resources have expanded: from 1994-2000, the number of physicians increased by 33% and the number of hospital beds increased by 32 percent.
For more information: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~ippam/
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