Lawmakers across party lines yesterday jointly urged the government to provide subsidies for parents with premature babies, who account for about 11 percent of newborns in Taiwan.
Data from the Premature Babies Foundation showed that 10.56 percent of approximately 130,000 newborns in Taiwan last year were premature babies.
Within six months after the birth of a premature baby, the average out-of-pocket medical expenses for a family was NT$114,000, nearly four times higher than medical expenses for a full-term baby, the foundation said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The earlier a premature baby is born, the higher the average medical expenses are, both during hospitalization and after being discharged from hospitals, the foundation said.
Half of the parents whose babies were born after only 29 weeks reported stress in caring for premature babies, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Hsiung-fang (黃秀芳), whose two children were born prematurely, said that government-funded subsidies should be made available for families with premature infants as raising them was indeed a challenge.
“Premature babies might need nutritional products soon after they are born, but might have underdeveloped lungs. Feeding them is not as easy as they are tiny,” Huang said.
“Parents often endure physical and psychological stress when caring for premature babies, with some of them struggling to pay medical bills. Government-funded subsidies would be a great help to first-time parents with premature infants,” she said.
DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said her second daughter was a premature baby.
“I experienced an unexpected bleeding during the 27th week of pregnancy and checked into the emergency room, where I was injected with steroids as the doctor tried to stop the baby from coming out for another 72 hours,” she said.
Su’s second daughter was eventually born prematurely and weighed only 998g.
“She was smaller than an arm and slept in an incubator, with her whole body covered with tubes. Her eyes were also covered with gauze as she could not see light. I watched her, wondering whether she would survive,” Su said.
Parents of premature babies often have to pay seven-figure medical bills when their babies are discharged from hospital, Su said.
“As a legislator, I am glad that I have the power to influence the direction of our healthcare system, and I hope that the government can provide subsidies for parents with premature infants,” Su said.
New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that Taiwan’s death rate among newborns is 4.4 percent, higher than the average for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states.
Preterm birth is one of the main factors, apart from hereditary diseases, Wang said.
“The government should invest more resources in the healthcare of premature babies,” she said.
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