Director-general of the Depart-ment of Health (DOH) Lee Ming-liang (
Lee, appearing at the Legislative Yuan to present a special report and answer legislators' interpellation, said the national health insurance program's financial problems are more serious than he had expected before taking office.
While the premiums on medical care will not be raised for the time being, Lee proposed to implement the maximum budget payment system to keep medical expenditures under control.
Under the system, a fixed amount of the government budget would be allocated to individual medical institutions.
The huge medicine expenditure deficit has been another major source of financial burden for the bureau.
Many hospitals have overcharged the bureau for medicine, requesting fee compensations at above-market prices.
To cut excessive medicine expenses, Lee said an investigation would be launched to determine reasonable prices for different medicines and price adjustments would be made to reflect changes in their cost.
Lee also said that the program would face a capital shortage as early as this month. Lee said he hoped the local governments would repay their debts to the bureau to help relieve financial pressure.
Official statistics indicate local governments owe the bureau NT$27.9 billion, which makes up the lion's share of the insurance program's deficit.
The Executive Yuan will hold a cross-ministerial meeting today to discuss the urgent repayment of health insurance debts from local governments.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
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