The Executive Yuan may approve raising national health insurance premiums from the current 4.25 percent to 4.55 percent in addition to raising the fee paid by patients for hospital outpatient treatment in a bid to improve the debt-ridden program, Cabinet sources told the Taipei Times yesterday.
If approved, the hike would help bring in an additional income of NT$20 billion, and NT$3.5 billion more from the fee for hospital outpatient treatment.
The Cabinet is scheduled to make the decision public tomorrow or Saturday.
Claiming losses of between NT$1.5 billion and NT$2 billion monthly, the health department yesterday proposed to raise the premium rate from the current 4.25 to 4.55 percent or to 4.75 percent in addition to raising the fee paid by patients for hospital out-patient treatment.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun has approved in principle raising the fee for hospital outpatient treatment.
Sources at the Cabinet told the Taipei Times that the premier will most likely approve raising the premium rate of the national health insurance scheme to 4.55 percent.
The Bureau of National Health Insurance proposed in March this year to the Department of Health an increase in rates for full-time workers from the current 4.25 percent to 4.91 percent of their monthly salary starting in July.
The rate has remained at 4.25 percent since the national health insurance system was launched in March 1995.
The Cabinet, however, later swept aside the plan.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) told reporters that the Cabinet is making arrangements for Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), director-general of the Department of Health, to brief the premier on the matter within the next couple of days.
According to existing regulations, in addition to medication fees, patients pay a registration fee of NT$50 at local hospitals and clinics and a maximum of NT$150 at university or regional hospitals.
Under the new proposal, patients would have to shoulder 20 percent of the outpatient expenses at university or regional hospitals and 15 percent of those at local hospitals.
The fee at clinics would remain unchanged.
This could translate into fees as high as NT$1,500 for an outpatient service at university hospitals, NT$1,000 at regional hospitals, and NT$500 at local hospitals.
The price hike, however, would not apply to underprivileged groups such as those on low incomes, the physically or mentally handicapped, children under the age of three, residents of remote areas and those suffering from chronic or critical disease.
To make the health insurance system more fair, the legislature approved amendments to the National Health Insurance Law during the last legislative session.
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