National Health Insurance covers highly effective medications—if you test positive for Hepatitis C, come and get treated!
A new dawn for curing Hepatitis C‼
Good news for you‼ Let Dr. Chih-Hsuan Wu, Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Hsinchu Branch, tell you more.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who discovered the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Their groundbreaking work in the 1980s and 1990s led to the development of blood screening tests for HCV, effectively blocking transmission through blood transfusions, and accelerated the rapid development of treatments for Hepatitis C—saving tens of millions of lives worldwide.

Hepatitis C was once considered an incurable disease. Patients lived under lifelong threats of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, and physicians could only monitor disease progression and manage complications. Later, interferon therapy became available, but it had significant side effects, was not tolerable for all patients, and had limited effectiveness.
In recent years, new oral antiviral medications have been developed. With just 2 to 3 months of oral treatment, these drugs have minimal side effects and a success rate as high as 98%.

When these new medications were first introduced, they cost NT$2–3 million out of pocket. Later, the National Health Insurance (NHI) began conditional reimbursement, prioritizing patients with more severe disease. To allow more Hepatitis C patients to receive treatment earlier and to achieve Taiwan’s goal of eliminating Hepatitis C by 2025, the government has increased its budget. The reimbursement criteria for oral Hepatitis C medications have now been fully lifted. As long as a patient is confirmed to have chronic Hepatitis C infection, regardless of the presence of liver fibrosis, they are eligible for treatment.

Dr. Chih-Hsuan Wu, Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital Hsinchu Branch, stated that the hospital’s hepatitis care team includes three board-certified gastroenterologists and one hepatitis health educator, supported by comprehensive laboratory testing and examinations. This allows the team to provide high-quality treatment and follow-up care for hepatitis patients. In 2019 and 2020, the hospital successfully treated 77 patients with Hepatitis C.

However, it is estimated that half of Hepatitis C patients in Taiwan are unaware of their infection. Therefore, starting September 28, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Welfare expanded the Adult Preventive Health Services, offering one-time lifetime screening for Hepatitis B and C to adults aged 45 to 79 years. The public is encouraged to take advantage of this service.

If Hepatitis C screening results are positive, patients can visit a hospital for more precise viral load testing. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, patients may apply for new antiviral medications through the NHI, receive early treatment, and prevent progression to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.