The Department of Health yesterday threatened to sue local governments who fail to pay off their debts to the National Health Insurance program.
According to National Health Insurance Bureau statistics, the program currently suffers from a monthly deficit of over NT$2 billion and a yearly deficit of NT$30 billion. Local governments owe NT$23.4 billion to the program.
The threat follows a Control Yuan reprimand against the health insurance bureau and the health department in June for failing to find a solution to the problem of its ever increasing debt.
Currently, Kaohsiung City and Taipei City owe the most, with debts of up to NT$7.4 billion and NT$4.9 billion respectively, the department said.
"The health department has nearly lost its dignity, begging local governments' to pay off their debts," said Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), the department's director-general.
"The health department has tried every possible way of pressing for payment but we have failed," complained Huang Fu-yuang (
While the department has yet to make a final decision regarding which local government they plan to take to administrative court, the special municipalities of Taipei City and Kaohsiung City are at the top of their list.
Last year the Cabinet decided to appropriate general subsidies to local governments to gradually pay off the latter's debts to the health insurance program.
"But such a decision failed to help Taipei and Kaohsiung pay their debts ... and they are not eligible to receive such subsidies according to related laws," a health department official said.
The official added that although the two cities' debts take up only a small portion of the revenues supporting the program, it is crucial to have them clear the debts.
"Otherwise other local governments would be encouraged to delay paying," she said.
The central government and local governments help individuals enroll in the health insurance program and their employers pay a certain percentage of the insurance fees to support the project, which is part of the social security system.
The debts that local governments failed to clear are mostly fees they pay for local residents whose incomes do not meet minimum living standards, the department's national health insurance division said.
The governments of both special municipalities, however, said yesterday that they simply lack the funds, saying that "the central government can file a lawsuit if that is what it wants."
"We would pay off the debts if we had the money," said Taipei City spokesperson King Pu-tsung (
Kenneth Lin (林向愷), director of Kaohsiung's bureau of finance, complained that the central government is responsible for the city's incapacity in clearing such debts.
"The central government, which wants to please the public, always cuts taxes that would have been revenue for local governments without asking the local governments' opinion," Lin said.
Lin added that the lowering of Taiwan's financial business tax from 5 percent to 2 percent since 1999 has taken NT$4 billion from city government coffers.
"The total we owe to the program equals about 12 percent of our yearly budget for everything," Lin said.
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