Chen Meei-shia, director of the Department of Public Health at National Cheng Kung University, points out that in the 1980s the government's policy of "emphasizing disease prevention over disease treatment" took an about-turn when it began to assist and encourage local health centers to transform themselves into treatment centers, with the result that the health centers changed from entities responsible for public health policy into agencies offering clinical services on a for-profit basis.
成功大學公共衛生研究所所長陳美霞指出，一九八○年代，政府「公衛建設重於醫療建設」的政策有了大逆轉，它開始協助、推動各地衛生所轉型為群體醫療中心，使得衛生所從負責公共衛生的單位，變成提供醫療服務、賺取利潤的機構。