Pan-blue lawmakers accused the Bureau of National Health Insur-ance yesterday of raising health insurance payments to benefit its own employees.
"The more the bureau earns, the greater the bonuses its employees get. Its employees' bonuses are derived from people's health insurance payments," said PFP Legislator Cheng San-yuan (鄭三元) in a budget review meeting at the legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee.
"These employees are greedier than rake collectors in gambling houses," Cheng said.
"Have you ever thought about the poor when increasing health insurance payments?" Cheng asked Department of Health acting head Twu Shiing-jer (
The bureau raised insurance premiums from 4.25 percent of a person's monthly salary to 4.55 percent on Sept. 1.
As a result, Cheng said, the bureau's annual income will increase by NT$30 billion and the total amount of its employees' annual bonuses will rise by NT$15 million.
KMT Legislator Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) backed Cheng by saying the bureau's inefficient employees do not deserve bonuses.
"In contrast to the bureau's poor performance, the bonuses its employees receive are unreasonably high," Hou said.
Meanwhile, PFP Legislator Lin Hui-kuan (
"The bureau is neither honest nor trustworthy," Lin said.
DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te
(
In response to lawmakers' accusations, BNHI Deputy General Manager Chen I-feng (
"Our employees have never taken a penny from NHI premiums," Chen said.
"Therefore, the increase in the NHI premiums has absolutely nothing to do with our bonuses," he said.
Chen explained that the employees do not have the same benefits system as other civil servants because the bureau is not a government institution, even though it imple-ment's government policy.
"For example, our employees have neither retirement pensions nor education bursaries for their children. These are benefits every civil servant enjoys," he said.
The bureau rewards its staff with better bonuses to compensate for those disadvantages, Chen added.
Liu Chien-hsiang (劉見祥), another BNHI deputy general manager, said the dispute about bonuses arises from the bureau's obscure identity.
"If the bureau was a governmental institution, its employees would be able to enjoy the civil servants' welfare system. Then it would not need to compensate its employees with big bonuses," Liu said.
Liu said he hoped the bureau's identity would be clarified as soon as possible.
Chen noted that staff bonuses have been the target of lawmakers' criticism for a long time.
"We would rather give up our bonuses than keep getting criticized over them," he said.
During yesterday's committee meeting, lawmakers also accused some doctors and hospitals of wasting medical resources.
In response, Twu held a press conference yesterday afternoon to announce that he was setting up a team to investigate allegations of corruption in the health system.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by