The Executive Yuan last week approved plans to allocate about NT$13.5 billion (US$411 million) for child healthcare over the next four years, nearly five times more than the current program.
The government expects to spend NT$13.5 billion on medical care for pregnant women, newborns and children from next year to 2028, Ministry of Health and Welfare senior official Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍) said.
Liu said that the program, which had a budget of NT$2.79 billion for 2021 to last year, yielded some results and that the ministry hopes to improve perinatal, neonatal and childcare over the next four years.
Photo: CNA
The ministry first rolled out the child healthcare program in 2021 to address the failure to reduce mortality rates among children aged five and below, and to tackle the shortage of pediatricians in rural areas.
At the time, the ministry said that while the mortality rate for children up to five years old dropped from 9.7 per thousand in 1990 to 4.8 per thousand in 2015, this downward trend lagged behind neighboring countries such as Japan and South Korea.
The plans approved by the Cabinet on Thursday would be used to enhance the monitoring of child development and promote disease prevention services, such as dental and obesity examinations, Liu said.
Under the plans, hospitals are to receive subsidies for operating neonatal units and pediatric intensive care units, Liu said.
The plans also include bonuses and grants to fund pediatricians’ overseas studies on how to treat children with cancer, and genetic and rare diseases, she added.
The cabinet said it hopes that the next four-year program would effectively reduce the country’s infant and child mortality rates, Cabinet spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) cited Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying.
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