President Lai Ching-te attended the 50th anniversary of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and proposed different pay for different jobs to improve the difficulty of recruiting doctors.

2026/10/02 12:42

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, President Lai Qingde mentioned in his speech that the problem of not being able to recruit doctors in certain departments should be improved through different work and different pay methods. (Photo by reporter Xie Wuxiong)

[Reporter Xie Wuxiong/Taoyuan Report] When President Lai Ching-te attended the 50th anniversary event of the Chang Gung Memorial Medical System today (2nd), he said that Taiwan’s national health insurance has been promoted for more than 30 years and has made a significant contribution to the health security of the Chinese people. However, as the population ages, medical needs increase, and the medical workforce structure changes, the current system is also facing new challenges. In addition to promoting the "Healthy Taiwan Deepening Plan", the government will also continue to increase the total amount of health insurance and adjust the payment system through "different work, different pay" to improve the long-term recruitment difficulties in some high-working hours and high-risk departments.

President Lai also mentioned that when chatting with him, a professor-level doctor mentioned that each operation took 8 to 12 hours. Many doctors would watch and learn from the sidelines, but the health insurance benefits were pitifully low; even the professor was embarrassed to say, "It's bad, it's bad, you can't think of it." To this end, he proposed this policy to improve the recruitment difficulties for some high-working hours and high-risk departments.

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President Lai said that the government promotes the "Healthy Taiwan" policy in the hope of extending the average life expectancy while also reducing the unhealthy indicators of the Chinese people. A number of goals have been set, including increasing the average life expectancy by 3 years in 2036; aiming to reduce the standardized death rate by one-third by 2030 for cancer, which is the top ten leading cause of death in the country; and strengthening the prevention and treatment of "three highs" such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia through the "888 Plan", with the same goal of reducing preventable deaths.

In terms of health insurance finance, Lai Qingde said that the government continues to increase the growth rate of total health insurance. Last year (2025), it adopted a high estimate of 5.5% and transferred 18.1 billion yuan that should not be funded by health insurance and should be returned to the public budget. Out of the budget, the total amount of health insurance will reach 928.6 billion yuan; this year (2026) is also estimated at a high level of 5.5%, and an additional 19.1 billion yuan of related expenditures will be removed, bringing the total amount of health insurance to about 1 trillion and 82 billion yuan. Next year, the plan is in the same direction.

President Lai said that he asked the Ministry of Health and Welfare to increase the points for different jobs and different pays due to the increased funding, so as to improve the problem of not being able to recruit people in some departments. Next, the hospital points should be increased, and equipment should be improved, and then cultivate talents, fulfill social responsibilities, and the most important thing is to help employees raise their salaries. Lai Qingde also asked Chang Geng present if there had been a salary increase, and the Chang Geng employees in the audience shouted "Yes."