By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe People First Party (PFP) yesterday said that it plans to propose legislation that would implement “total nursing care,” which it said would only raise National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums by about NT$40 (US$1.31) per month. The “total nursing care” proposal was presented by Eva Teng (滕西華), a long-time advocate for the rights of patients and the physically challenged, as well as the PFP’s No. The total value of the nursing care market is about NT$60 billion and most caretakers are women, Teng said. “If the government enforced a total nursing care policy, hospitals could train caretakers to complement the care of doctors and nurses, based on their different medical specialties,” she said. Total nursing care should be covered by the NHI, she said.
