Pan-blues propose insurance hike

Opposition lawmakers yesterday unveiled a plan to reinstate former national health insurance premiums, which, if adopted, would be retroactive to last September.

That means that the Department of Health would have to reimburse fee hikes collected in the past months and obtain legislative consent before seeking to raise premiums in the future.

Under existing rules, health officials may adjust National Health Insurance premiums without consulting the lawmaking body, as long as the charges do not exceed six percent of subscribers' monthly income.

The present premium stands at 4.55 percent of saleries, up from 4.25 percent -- a rate that had never been changed since the implementation of the health program in 1995.

KMT Legislator Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said he and other colleagues found it necessary to tighten oversight of the health department, which has pressed ahead with increases in health insurance premiums and co-payment rates in defiance of a legislative resolution.

On Jan. 10, the legislature voted 118 to 99 in favor of an opposition-sponsored resolution demanding an immediate halt to the new fee scheme that went into effect on Sept. 1 last year.

Health officials have said that they could not keep the health program afloat without the fee hike. But opposition legislators argue that the government should seek first to crack down on overcharging involving medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

The health department, by refusing to comply with the resolution, has antagonized the executive and legislative branches, Tseng said.

"To address the problem, we have decided to amend health codes and restore the previous fees," he said.

Top health official Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) has insisted the legislative resolution has no binding effect.

PFP legislative leader Chiu Yi (邱毅) echoed the need to revise health rules, saying it was as the best way to stop the government from treating the people like an ATM to ease its cash shortages.

The opposition proposal would return the premium to 4.25 percent. If made into law, it would obligate the health department to return money paid in excess of this for past months.

The ruling DPP caucus ridiculed the bill as a farce.

DPP legislative whip Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) warned that the health program would risk collapse if the opposition caucuses persist with their irrational boycott.

Fellow DPP lawmaker Charles Chiang (江昭儀) has asked the constitutional court to rule on the legality of the legislative resolution in the hope it can help end the health row.