The Hill
Date: 05/10/19
By: Stanley Kao 

In February, an American student Kevin Bozeat shared on his Facebook page his amazing medical experience while studying in Taiwan. Kevin had no health insurance there but still received high-quality and affordable medical care. His story attracted debate in the U.S. media regarding what he had experienced and what the U.S. can learn from Taiwan. Providing quality health care at an affordable cost is an area Taiwan excels in. And Taiwan is eager to share its extraordinary advances in health care around the world. Regrettably, this wish is stymied by China’s irrational obstruction against Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).

As Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung stated in a recent interview: “Taiwan’s expertise in disease control and universal health coverage can strengthen global medical development, and the nation is willing and able to share its experiences.”  What better place to achieve this goal than at the upcoming 72nd WHA in Geneva from May 20 to 28 ?  However, due to China’s political meddling in what should be a basic human right – access to affordable health care for all the world’s citizens – Taiwan and its input and expertise have been excluded from the annual WHA gathering since 2017.
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