The Council of Grand Justices (大法官會議) yesterday ruled that local governments' legal obligation under the National Health Insurance Law (全民健保法) to contribute to the funding of the National Health Insurance system does not violate their constitutional right to financial independence, confirming that Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments must pay NT$15.2 billion in outstanding contributions.
On Jan. 7 this year, the Cabinet's Bureau of National Health Insurance (中央健保局) held a news conference and accused the city governments of Taipei and Kaohsiung of not paying their health insurance subsidy debts of NT$8.3 billion and NT$6.9 billion respectively, owed for 2001. At that press conference, the bureau's General Manager Chang Hong-jen (張鴻仁) said that they would give these two governments an ultimatum of two months to make their plans or the bureau will file suits against two governments.
Under Article 27 of the National Health Insurance Law (全民健保法) local governments are obliged to pay one-third of the costs of medical treatment incurred in the previous year by the residents in their jurisdiction.
Taipei City Government filed for a constitutional interpretation, arguing that the clause breached Article 109 of the ROC Constitution under which city governments enjoy "the power of legislation and administration" over their finance and revenues.
Yesterday's interpretation article ruled that the central government's request was totally legal and reasonable; it had nothing to do with the central government's violating local governments' rights of financial independence. In addition, both the central government and local governments should collaborate on the issue since health insurance covers every Taiwan citizen.
Responding to questions about the unusually fast pace with which the justices had produced their interpretation and the possibility of political interference only weeks away from mayoral elections in Kaohsiung and Taipei, Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Yang Ren-shou (楊仁壽) said "Usually, it takes months or years for the grand justices to finish a case. This time, the city government filed the application in February and grand justices finished it today because the city government hoped that we could speed things up ," Yang said.
"The grand justices always produce their interpretations without political bias. This case has nothing to do with the year-end elections," he said.
In response to the council's ruling, Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) promised that the government would pay off its debts even though the government itself was facing a serious financial problem.
The Taipei City Government said that it will pay off its debts, too. But officials needed to negotiate with the Cabinet to come up with a way to do this since the city government was too short of money.
"We will pay. In the meantime, we do respect the grand justices' interpretation and believe it's a fair one," said Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), spokesman for the Taipei City Government.
"However, we'll negotiate with the Cabinet and see if we can finance the debts because we really can't come up with that much money at one time" Wu said.
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