The Democratic Progressive Party government on Tuesday last week launched its revised long-term care plan, with trial programs beginning in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, as well as Chiayi, Yunlin, Nantou, Hualien and Taitung counties.
However, despite President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) determination to push forward the implementation of her “long-term care services program 2.0” for disabled and older people, many are still not convinced of its efficacy, with some questioning how the government plans to make it a sustainable project that contributes to social stability.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the trial programs are to focus on building community-based care centers and facility-based assisted nursing homes in cities and counties. Under the ministry’s proposal, there is to be a three-tier care system for centers that aims to provide quality, inclusive and affordable long-term care services. The ministry has proposed an annual budget of NT$17.8 billion (US$565.56 million) to establish community-level facilities.
However, the issues of who is to pay for the services and what stable funding sources can be found remain major challenges, which might have negative implications for the plan’s future.
Tsai in February said that she would allocate NT$30 billion from taxes and NT$3 billion from the government’s regular budget toward building a long-term care system. Based on her election campaign platform, Tsai has proposed spending as much as NT$60 billion backed by tax revenue over eight years to support the system.
While there have been suggestions on how to fund the care system — such as using revenue from increases in business taxes and the integrated house and land sales tax — the government has opted to raise inheritance, gift and tobacco taxes to finance care services, which is expected to generate about NT$22 billion in annual revenue, a Ministry of Finance estimate last month showed.
Even so, questions remain about how much these funds can do for the care system and if this revenue can translate into quality services. In addition, there are still doubts over the sustainability of tax revenue in the long run in Taiwan, where the population is aging rapidly, birth rates remain low and demand for both the scope and reach of care services is expanding rapidly.
Another pressing issue facing the revised care plan is whether Taiwan has enough adequately trained people to take care of older people and those with disabilities. The system is still short between 4,500 and 12,000 caregivers per year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. Its answer to this problem, or at least part of it, is to ask the Ministry of National Defense to have at least 1,000 substitute draftees work in long-term care facilities every year, with the government to consider an alternative military service for draftees interested in working in the field.
Such attempts are creative, but counting on draftees alone does not help fix the personnel problem, because the root causes of the serious understaffing in long-term care facilities include few young caregivers coming into the industry, low wages, a heavy workload and a lack of respect for the occupation.
The use of substitute draftees to provide care services might work on a temporary basis, but it does not guarantee that quality of care or suitable services are provided over an extended period. After draftees are discharged from the military, the long-term care system will still be understaffed and underfunded if no improvement is made to work conditions, no incentive is offered to encourage employment and no effort is made to make the profession desirable.
The trial programs are just the beginning for Taiwan’s long-term care system, which still has a long way to go.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people have been asking if Taiwan is the next Ukraine. At a G7 meeting of national leaders in January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Taiwan “could be the next Ukraine” if Chinese aggression is not checked. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that if Russia is not defeated, then “today, it’s Ukraine, tomorrow it can be Taiwan.” China does not like this rhetoric. Its diplomats ask people to stop saying “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” However, the rhetoric and stated ambition of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Taiwan shows strong parallels with