Capitation is a payment counted by the head: a fixed amount for each person, not based on how much that person uses. It has two main homes. One is tax: a capitation tax (often called a poll tax or a head tax) charges everyone the same, rich or poor. People have long argued that this is unfair, because a fixed sum hurts a low earner more than a wealthy one. History books and law books still use the word this way. The other home is health care: a clinic or a doctor is paid a set sum for each patient on their list, whether that patient visits twice a year or twenty times. The clinic then has to make that money cover the care. In Taiwan you will hear this idea as 論人計酬, set against 論量計酬, which pays for each visit or each treatment. The word itself is formal. Governments, hospitals, and lawyers use it; it does not turn up in chat. The “head” is the old Latin picture: one payment, one person. Though actually, it is not a word for capital cities, capital letters, or cutting off a head — even though those ideas sit near the same Latin root. Think “per person,” not “Taipei.”

人頭稅；健保則說論人計酬（相對：論量計酬）