Household out-of-pocket medical expenditures and national health insurance in Taiwan: income and regional inequality

BACKGROUND: Unequal geographical distribution of medical care resources and insufficient healthcare coverage have been two long-standing problems with Taiwan's public health system. The implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) attempted to mitigate the inequality in health care use. This study examines the degree to which Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) has reduced out-of-pocket medical expenditures in households in different regions and varying levels of income. METHODS: Data used in this study were drawn from the 1994 and 1996 Surveys of Family Income and Expenditure. We pooled the data from 1994 and 1996 and included a year dummy variable (NHI), equal to 1 if the household data came from 1996 in order to assess the impact of NHI on household out-of-pocket medical care expenditures shortly after its implementation in 1995. RESULTS: An individual who was older, female, married, unemployed, better educated, richer, head of a larger family household, or living in the central and eastern areas was more likely to have greater household out-of-pocket medical expenditures. NHI was found to have effectively reduced household out-of-pocket medical expenditures by 23.08%, particularly for more affluent households. With the implementation of NHI, lower and middle income quintiles had smaller decreases in out-of-pocket medical expenditure. NHI was also found to have reduced household out-of-pocket medical expenditures more for households in eastern Taiwan. CONCLUSION: Although NHI was established to create free medical care for all, further effort is needed to reduce the medical costs for certain disadvantaged groups, particularly the poor and aborigines, if equality is to be achieved

Educational robotics as an Innovative teaching practice using technology: minimization of risks

This research is focused on studying educational robotics, specifically robots which provide functions of educational activity. We have considered the questions of intelligent agents' behavior and have studied their educational opportunities. Educational robotics is a powerful tool of developing person's skills and abilities in various fields of technical creativity and professional activity. The evolutionary development of robotics is connected with development of artificial intelligence, where emotions play a great role in operations. Nowadays the main thing is to form the ability and skills of optimum interaction with social environment when a person, based on gained knowledge, is capable to put goals of the activity in strict accordance with laws and society conditions and using current technology

Investigation on the reactivity of tetranuclear Group 7/8 mixed-metal clusters toward triphenylphosphine

Reactions of the tetranuclear mixed-metal clusters ReM3(CO)13(µ3-thpymS) (1, M = Os; 2, M = Ru; thpymSH = tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thiol) with PPh3 are examined. At room temperature reaction between 1 and PPh3 in the presence Me3NO leads to the formation of mono- and bis-phosphine substituted clusters ReOs3(CO)12(PPh3)(µ3-thpymS) (3) and ReOs3(CO)11(PPh3)2(µ3-thpymS) (4). Cluster 3 also reacts with PPh3 under similar conditions to give 4. In contrast, a similar reaction between 2 and PPh3 furnishes only the mono-phosphine substituted clusters ReRu3(CO)12(PPh3)(µ3-thpymS) (3). All the new clusters have been characterized by analytical and spectroscopic data together with single crystal X-ray diffraction for 1, 3 and 5