Temporal Accountability and Taiwan's National Health Insurance System

Accountability is central to human rights, yet it has varied interpretations across contexts. Conventionally, accountability denotes blame and punishment or emphasizes hierarchical relationships between claim holders and duty bearers. However, accountability cannot be an episodic event. In health governance, continuous and iterative improvements are required to reflect changing social, economic, and political circumstances. Accordingly, we define "temporal accountability" as an institutional design that incorporates time-bound obligations for implementing corrective actions and remedial measures. Through a case study of Taiwan's Constitutional Court decision on expatriate residents' financial contributions, we analyze temporal accountability in action and draw broader lessons for human rights accountability, proposing measurable indicators and guiding principles of temporal accountability.