Health

Closing Clinics Leave Pregnant Women with Limited Care Options

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By Klein Wang/Irene Lin/John Van Trieste

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Faced with a stubbornly low birth rate and limited health insurance reimbursements, obstetrics and gynecology clinics are closing down across Taiwan, leaving pregnant women with fewer choices for prenatal care.

Taiwan’s Declining Birth Rate Threatens OB-GYN Clinics

 

REPORTER:  

Dr. Pan Chun-heng has been in obstetrics and gynecology for more than 40 years. But with Taiwan’s birth rate stubbornly low, his practice only sees around 40 births a month.  

That’s just a quarter of what used to be the norm. With that low number and national health insurance reimbursing less than $1,000 US dollars per new mom, money is tight, and Dr. Pan is thinking of calling it quits.

 

Pan Chun-heng (OB-GYN DOCTOR):  

If births fall below 30 a month  

I’ll have to close my clinic.  

[I have to pay] rent, water and electricity.  

You can’t open a private gynecology clinic  

without an obstetrics department.

 

REPORTER:  

There’s no sign things will get better. So far this year, Taiwan’s only seen 7,000-8,000 births a month.  

At this rate, the country may see fewer than 100,000 births in total for the whole year—a new low.

 

REPORTER:  

That spells trouble for those women who do become pregnant. Last year, 23 reproductive health practices closed across Taiwan—about 10% of the nation’s total.  

At this rate, pregnant women outside major cities could soon find it hard to get medical attention.

 

Huang Chien-pei (TAIWAN ASSOC. OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY):  

Hengchun Hospital is thinking  

of shutting [the OB-GYN department] down.  

Once it’s closed, what are pregnant women  

in Hengchun supposed to do?  

They’ll have to go 100km to Kaohsiung  

to get prenatal checkups.

 

REPORTER:  

The government says it will be considering its options over the coming weeks.

 

Chen Lian-yu (DIRECTOR-GENERAL, NAT’L HEALTH INSURANCE ADMIN.):  

We expect to hold an expert advisory meeting  

at the end of May  

and a joint planning meeting at the end of June.  

The committee will then consult  

the National Health Insurance system  

and respond to the Taiwan Association  

of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

 

REPORTER:  

For those practices now struggling, that response could seal their fate amid a falling birthrate that shows no signs of rising again.