Chronic kidney disease last year was Taiwan’s costliest disease, with the National Health Insurance system paying NT$53.3 billion (US$1.8 billion) in fees related to it, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said.
The top five costliest diseases funded by the system last year also includes type 2 diabetes (NT$30.8 billion), gingivitis and periodontal disease (NT$18 billion), tooth decay (NT$16.4 billion), and primary hypertension (NT$14 billion), NHIA data showed.
Rounding out the top 10 are anti-tumor treatments in hospitals (NT$13.4 billion), including radiotherapy and chemotherapy; respiratory failure (NT$12.5 billion); chronic ischemic heart disease (NT$12.2 billion); schizophrenia (NT$1.15 billion); and malignant tumor of the bronchi or lung (NT$11 billion).
More than 397,000 people last year sought treatment for chronic kidney diseases, including more than 92,000 people who received dialysis treatment, marking a record high, the data showed.
National Taiwan University Hospital nephrologist Chiang Chih-kang (姜至剛) yesterday said that Taiwan has one of the highest prevalence and incidence rates of kidney disease in the world, and the incidence rate in people aged 65 or older is increasing.
Kidney function declines with age in almost everyone by an average of 1 percent per year after the age of 40, so a person’s kidney function could have declined by 40 percent by the time they are in their 80s or 90s, he said.
However, Chiang said that many risk factors cause kidney function to decline faster, including diabetes, drug use or long-term exposure to air pollutants.
About 46 percent of people who are on dialysis have diabetes, usually with poor glycemic control, he said, adding that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have long been regarded as dangerous for people who have chronic kidney disease.
Heavy metal substances or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in particulate matter can also damage kidneys when inhaled, he said.
NHIA data showed that the highest average medical fee per person was for respiratory failure, which cost the healthcare system about NT$12.5 billion to treat 41,000 patients, at about NT$302,000 per person.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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