title: [An opinion survey of physicians on the impact of National Health Insurance].
abstract: In order to further protect the rights of citizens to health care, the government of Taiwan has decided to fully implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) program by 1994. This study examined the opinions of physicians in Taiwan on the impact of the NHI. The data for the analysis came from a mailing survey of 1619 physicians carried out in November 1989 (response rate 21.6%). The results of this study showed: (1) The impact of NHI on the profession: physicians expect their incomes to decrease, workloads to increase, and their professional authonomy to decrease; (2) The impact of the NHI on working conditions: hospital-based physicians expect to decrease the use of medical auxilliary personnel, increase the volume of services, and increase service hours, where as office-based physicians expect the NHI to increase the use of medical auxilliary personnel, increase the volume of services, and increase administrative workload; (3) Half of the physicians expect the NHI will cause the quality of health services to deteriorate. Based on the above findings, this study further discussed the policy and research implications for planning the NHI.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chiang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs; D010820:Physicians; D013624:Taiwan