by Xin Yage

The government announces the possibility for foreigners to use the full range of hospital services. This growth area saw revenues rise fourfold between 2011 and 2012.

Taipei (AsiaNews) - Taiwan's health care system is a source of pride for islanders. Even if reconciling affordable prices with high quality care is often hard to do, services are open to both locals and outsiders.

Having set up special economic zones (自由 经济 示范 区, SEZs) to attract big foreign companies, like the three major industrial parks in Hsinchu, Taichung and Kaohsiung where local and foreign companies can enjoy logistical, economic and tax advantages that create jobs for the local population, now the Taiwan government wants to open up its health care sector to foreigners.

The island's Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD, 经济 建设 委员会) yesterday announced a proposal to give foreign tourists full access to medical facilities located in SEZs . In a press conference, Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管 中 闵) provided statistics and projections for the near future.

Taiwan's tourism industry has come to rely heavily on the huge influx of tourists from Communist China. According to Hong Zi-ren (洪子仁), who runs one of the top hospitals in Taipei, "the quality of medical treatment in Taiwan is the main reason for the arrival of tourists from the mainland." Now tourists from mainland China can travel on their own. Until a year ago, they had to be part of organised groups.

For an idea of the economic benefits mainland and foreign medical tourists bring to the island, it is sufficient to know that between the start of 2011 and the end of 2012, their spending rose fourfold, from one billion to four billion Taiwan dollars (about US$ 135 million). Not surprisingly, the Taiwanese government wants to increase the number of patients receiving health care treatment in Taiwan.

The combination of high quality medical facilities and trained staff, along with the lower cost of visits when compared to Europe and the United States, makes Taiwan an attractive destination for a growing number of medical tourists.

In the past, people from outside Taiwan had only access to medical check-ups and cosmetic surgery; now they have access to the whole range of medical and hospital services under Minister Kuan Chung-ming's new approach, which he laid out yesterday.

In addition, the new plan seeks to attract medical organisations from other countries in order to serve foreign and Taiwanese patients, thus further improving the island's high quality health care system.

• taiwan
• medical
• tourism
• health
• care