President 
Lai Ching-te announced on August 27 that the health ministry will launch a "health coin" scheme in October, rewarding people for health check-ups, cancer screenings and other preventive care. He made the announcement while chairing the eighth meeting of the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee, which CNA reported was the first attended by its third-term members.
How will the scheme work? Anyone aged 18 or over can take part, and completing an adult health check-up earns 800 coins, PTS reported. Hepatitis B and C screening, publicly funded cancer screening and flu or COVID-19 vaccination also earn coins in varying amounts. The minimum redemption is 1,000 coins, at first exchangeable for health foods at convenience stores, and the ministry will also work with life insurers on health-incentive policies and health promotion services. It plans later to link wearable devices or apps that record steps, and to extend redemption to medical care and sports venues.
Why is the government doing this? The ministry aims to lengthen healthy life expectancy and lower standardised death rates from cancer and the "three highs" of blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids, PTS reported. Taiwan has become a super-aged society in which chronic disease is a major challenge, so health policy must shift from treating disease toward health promotion and preventive medicine, Lai said. The scheme is more than a reward system, he said, calling it a new model of digital health governance through which he hopes government-built rules and public-private cooperation will create a nationwide health promotion ecosystem.
What did the president ask of the ministry? In directives issued after the meeting, Lai told the ministry to keep refining the scheme's design and digital services to fit public needs, CNA reported. He asked it to widen cooperation with local governments, hospitals and private companies to add places to use the coins and more rewards, and to step up publicity and narrow the digital divide so people of every age and ethnic group can take part. In closing remarks, he said the scheme would deepen Taiwan's use of digital health and reshape its "health culture."
What else was on the agenda? The committee also heard a report on a national action plan for indigenous health resilience. Average life expectancy among indigenous peoples trails that of the population as a whole by 7.54 years, Lai said, and he directed officials to carry out the plan's 15 core strategies so that its NT$20.8 billion four-year budget has the greatest effect.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
