Enrolling in the Taiwan National Health Insurance program as a self-employed Gold Card holder.

I recently got my NHI card and while it is still somewhat fresh in my memory, I will share with you my process in getting it in Taipei as a self-employed Gold Card holder.

The following Gold Card Community site helped me the most, and I basically followed the steps indicated. As always, do remember that things change, and that least on this date of July 8th, 2021, the information is valid. The process was very easy and smooth sailing but maybe there are a few things that I should point out based on my personal experience.

I went to the office indicated in the above site:  Ministry of Health and Welfare Health Insurance Department Building (衛福部健康保險署臺北業務組-健保大樓辦公室). It was very easy to find from Taipei Main Station exit M8. 

This was at the beginning of May 2021, just before the pandemic actually hit Taiwan. Now, it could very well be a coincidence, but a lot of businesses (even government) that offer services in English might not actually offer services in English, and a lot of times, this has been my experience. Actually, I always try to tell people I want to speak in Mandarin as much as possible so I can improve, and when necessary I would switch to English. With my limited Mandarin, I actually manage to get by, but the strange thing is that most of the time, the people serving me even on the English service lines don't speak English at all or barely. I am very surprised that most of the time I manage to survive with my level of Mandarin!

Again, it could just be a coincidence that I'm more often than not paired with people like this. So, if possible, I suggest you go in prepared for such a situation. If you have a fully fluent Mandarin speaker friend, that can be really helpful. If not, I will try to help with a few key words. I hope you know about the tone system in Mandarin, I will write in Chinese characters, as well as Pinyin. If not, just type them into Google Translate and use the text to speech feature to get accustomed to the pronunciation so you can recognize the words and/or use them. Just please note that the pronunciation may not always be perfect or at least the way people pronounce things in Taiwan.

First of all, if you're like me, you look Asian and are not confident in your Mandarin skills, the following phrase is very useful: 

不好意思，我不太會講中文。Bu4 hao3 yi1 si5, wo3 bu4 tai4 hui4 jiang3 zhong1wen2. I use 5 to denote neutral tone but on Google Translate it will not pronounce it in a natural way, so I recommend making it sound like 4th tone (not quite exactly like it, but it'll do), and it make it quick. Don't put emphasis on it. This basically means : I'm sorry, but I'm not so good at speaking Chinese". If on the other hand, you speak zero Chinese, you can also just say 不好意思，我不會講中文. It is the same sentence but without the word tai4 so it translates as "Sorrry, I don't speak Chinese".

The next useful phrase is:

我要辦健保卡  Wo3 yao4 ban4 jian4bao3 ka3 - I want to get the Health Insurance card

or you can also say:

我要申請健保卡 Wo3 yao4 sheng1qing3 jian4bao3 ka3. - I want to apply for the Health Insurance card

The person at the entrance should hopefully point you in the right direction. Remember that you will need to bring your Gold Card, your passport, and a a photo. There are lots of instant photo booths in certain MRT stations. I had mine done at the one in Zhongshan MRT. I don't know if it's still there.

When it's your turn to be served, those same phrases should come in handy. If the person speaks zero English. Here a few useful words to recognize and practice:

護照 hu4zhao4 - Passport

地址 di4zhi3 - Address

電話號碼 dian4hua4 hao4ma3 - Telephone number

手機號碼 shou3ji1 hao4ma3 - Cellphone number

照片 zhao4pian4 - picture (as in photo ID)

签名 qian1ming2 - sign name (signature)

我覺得丹尼斯超酷 wo3 jue2de2 dan1ni2si1 chao1 ku4 - I think Denis is super cool (very useful)

I hope I'm not forgetting anything but these words/phrases should be useful enough to get points across. Try to practice saying these words over and over or print out this list and bring it with you to show it to them.

They asked if I wanted the card delivered to me or if I wanted to pick up. They didn't tell me that the pandemic was about to start soon, so I chose to pick it up. They told me to come back in two weeks and bring the photo ID with me then as they didn't need it at the moment. I suppose if you choose to have it shipped, you would leave the photo ID with them.

That's it. I waited two weeks, and went to pick it up. 

我來拿我的健保卡 wo3 lai2 na2 wo3 de5 jian4bao3 ka3 - I've come to pick up my health card.

Give them the photo ID, and wait a bit, and that's it!

You will receive your first bill at some point. It will be sent to the address you submitted. It took about a month for me to get my first one. There are different payment systems, but I don't have a bank account in Taiwan (at least not yet). 

I paid mine at a convenience store. I went to Family Mart. You bring the bill with you. As you hand it to the clerk, you say:

我要繳費 wo3 yao4 jiao3fei4 - I want to pay.

At this point, the clerk may say a number of things. So the part about not speaking Chinese can be useful. In my case, he asked if it was the only thing I had to pay. Something along the lines of:

一張嗎·？ yi1 zhang1 ma5? - Literally translated as "one"?. Zhang1 is a measure word unit that you use to count things like documents / paper. So basically the clerk means "One document?"

You can just reply 對。一張  dui4. yi1 zhang1 - Yes. One (document).

Then he asked me: 

要加東西嗎？yao4 jia1 dong1xi1 ma5? - Want to add anything? (As in "want to buy anything else?"

He did this as he pointed to the screen that showed pictures of drinks, chocolate, etc...

Let's keep things simple and just say no. I would reply:

不用。謝謝。bu4yong4. xie4xie4 - No thanks (literally "Not necessary. Thank you")

At some point the clerk will indicate the price, but you can just look at the screen and pay what you owe. 

As is customary when you pay in Taiwan, they will say how much they received from you. So for example if you give them a 1000$ bill, they will say they received a 1000$ bill and then say how much your change is.

Finally, you may hear:

蓋章· gai4 zhang1 - Stamp

They will stamp your bill to prove that it was paid. I don't remember what he said, he asked me some question, maybe if he I wanted the document stapled with something, but I just said

蓋章·就好 gai4zhang1 jiu4 hao3 - "I just need the stamp" or "just the stamp is good enough".

That's it! Be sure to end your transaction by asking the clerk if they would like to buy my music at:

https://duvedandhistransatlanticfive.bandcamp.com/album/more-than-you-know

https://dcmusique.bandcamp.com/album/for-jimmy