Healthcare in Taiwan

Healthcare in Taiwan is administered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Executive Yuan. As with other developed economies, Taiwanese people are well-nourished but face such health problems as chronic obesity and heart disease.^[1] In 2002 Taiwan had nearly 1.6 physicians and 5.9 hospital beds per 1,000 population.^[1] In 2002, there were 36 hospitals and 2,601 clinics in the country. Per capita health expenditures totaled US$752 in 2000.^[1] Health expenditures constituted 5.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001 (or US$951 in 2009^[2]); 64.9 percent of the expenditures were from public funds.^[1] Overall life expectancy in 2019 was averaged at 81 years.^[3]

Recent major health issues include the SARS crisis in 2003, though the island was later declared safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).^[1]

Taiwan has the best healthcare system in the world, according to the 2023 edition of the CEOWORLD magazine Health Care Index,Of the 110 countries surveyed, Taiwan’s healthcare comes in 1st place on the list, scoring 78.72 out of 100 on the Health Care Index.^[4]