The legislature yesterday approved the government's budget for this year but attached resolutions demanding an immediate stop to the four-month old hike in national health insurance fees.
Cashing in on their slight numerical edge, opposition lawmakers also managed to freeze funds for issuance of integrated-circuit health cards and the establishment of a national cypress park.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The legislative body voted 118 to 99 in support of a resolution urging the Department of Health to abolish the hikes in National Health Insurance premiums and co-payment rates.
The department introduced the current fee scheme last September, saying it could not keep the health insurance program afloat otherwise.
But opposition legislators argued that the government should seek first to crack down on irregularities involving medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
"Over the years, unscrupulous medical service suppliers have overcharged patients," said independent lawmaker Sisy Chen (陳文茜), who has led the campaign against the hikes. "But the government has avoided confronting the problem. As a result of the fee increases, more people have signed off the program, unable to afford the premiums or medical bills."
Department of Health head Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), who appeared in the legislature earlier in the day to lobby against the resolution, said his department will press ahead with the hikes anyway.
He cited health codes as saying legislative consent is not necessary for fee adjustments of a modest scale.
DPP legislative leader Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the ruling party will seek to redress the situation by asking the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of the resolution.
All legislative caucuses issued top mobilization orders requiring their members to attend the showdown vote, starting at 6:30 pm, after several rounds of cross-party talks failed to iron out differences.
With a vote of 113 to 101, the opposition camp also pushed through a resolution stopping the National Health Insurance Bureau from using its budget for launching computerized health cards, pending further legislative review.
Many lawmakers have voiced apprehension that patients' medical data may be stolen from the computer system.
KMT legislative whip Lee Chuan-chia (李全教) expressed satisfaction on the string of resolutions adopted, calling the outcome a major partisan victory.
Also frozen was a NT$42.3 million fund to build a national park from 53,000 hectares of cypress forest in northern Taiwan, mainly inhabited by Atayal Aborigines.
The park proposal is a controversial issue among the Aborigines.
Independent Aborigine Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) and allies favor having the area designated as an autonomous region. Others back the park and have expressed a willingness to co-manage it with the government.
Lawmakers decided not to extend the session after opposition caucuses agreed to allow the Cabinet to request an additional budget for a NT$20 billion job-creation program later this year.
But they reserved the vote on another NT$50 billion project to create jobs through boosting public construction until the last day of the session on Tuesday.
Together, the two measures are intended to offer 115,000 one-year job opportunities in various public sectors and to lift economic growth by 0.38 percent this year.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun went to the legislature after the body concluded review of the government's budget, to show his gratitude.
The legislature trimmed the Cabinet's original proposed fiscal expenditure by NT$21.4 billion to NT$1.5 trillion, a cut of 1.5 percent.
TSU proposals to cut legislators' salaries and interest rates on savings of retired parliamentarians were both rejected. The tiny party also failed to block the proposed increase in the monthly stipend for retired soldiers.
The legislature also set aside the budget to establish a national human rights memorial hall.
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