Claim: Taiwan is a place.

Healthcare in Taiwan is administered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Executive Yuan . As with other developed economies , Taiwanese people are well-nourished but face such health problems as chronic obesity and heart disease . In 2002 Taiwan had nearly 1.6 physicians and 5.9 hospital beds per 1,000 population . In 2002 , there were a total of 36 hospitals and 2,601 clinics in the country . Per capita health expenditures totaled US$ 752 in 2000 . Health expenditures constituted 5.8 percent of the gross domestic product -LRB- GDP -RRB- in 2001 -LRB- or US$ 951 in 2009 -RRB- ; 64.9 percent of the expenditures were from public funds . Overall life expectancy in 2009 was 78 years .   Recent major health issues include the SARS crisis in 2003 , though the island was later declared safe by the World Health Organization -LRB- WHO -RRB- .   The current healthcare system in Taiwan , known as National Health Insurance -LRB- NHI , -RRB- , was instituted in 1995 . NHI is a single-payer compulsory social insurance plan which centralizes the disbursement of healthcare funds . The system promises equal access to healthcare for all citizens , and the population coverage had reached 99 % by the end of 2004 . NHI is mainly financed through premiums , which are based on the payroll tax , and is supplemented with out-of-pocket payments and direct government funding . In the initial stage , fee-for-service predominated for both public and private providers . Most health providers operate in the private sector and form a competitive market on the health delivery side . However , many healthcare providers took advantage of the system by offering unnecessary services to a larger number of patients and then billing the government . In the face of increasing loss and the need for cost containment , NHI changed the payment system from fee-for-service to a global budget , a kind of prospective payment system , in 2002 .