The Health Promotion Administration yesterday announced that starting this year, those aged 30 and older are eligible for free health checkups every five years, benefiting an estimated 3.2 million people.
The latest adjustment has lowered the minimum age for free health checkups from 40 to 30.
Those aged 40 to 65 are to continue to receive one free checkup every three years, while those older than 65 already receive annual checkups, Health Promotion Administration Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Indigenous people aged 55 and older and polio patients aged 35 and older also receive free annual checkups, Wu said.
The payment for each checkup has also been increased from NT$520 to NT$880 (US$15.77 to US$26.69) to enable healthcare providers to expand services, he said.
Checkups were previously only offered to those 40 and older, but the latest Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan, conducted from 2019 to 2023, showed that 9.7 percent of those aged 30 to 39 have high blood pressure, 2.5 percent have high blood sugar and 18.7 percent have high cholesterol, Aging and Chronic Disease Control Division chief physician Hu I-chun (胡怡君) said.
Treatment of conditions related to the “three highs” costs NT$167.6 billion per year, he said.
The checkups would help people who appear healthy to spot abnormalities early and begin preventative treatment before the onset of chronic disease, and are to help people get a better understanding of their health and get into the habit of regular checkups, he added.
Adult preventive health services include health behavior surveys, physical exams, blood tests, urine tests and health education consultations to address common health problems such as the “three highs,” kidney function, liver function and body mass index, the agency said.
From this year, services are to be upgraded to offer uric acid tests, chronic disease risk assessments, kidney disease testing and educational information related to a balanced diet and getting 150 minutes of exercise per week, it said.
High uric acid is closely related to diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease, and it affects 21.9 percent of men and 9.8 percent of women aged 19 and older, Hu said.
Identifying high uric acid in checkups would allow patients to identify the risks early and implement dietary adjustments, regular exercise routines and weight management to prevent the onset of chronic disease, he said.
The policy to offer free checkups to patients as young as 30 is a huge breakthrough that would not only make people take their health more seriously, but also establish a baseline for health data tracking, and allow patients to live longer and happier lives, Taiwan Medical Association standing director Huang Chi-chia (黃啟嘉) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat