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Cabinet hunts insurance debts
YEARS OVERDUE:
The debts of the Taipei City and Kaohsiung City governments now amount to billions of dollars, and the Cabinet wants a payment plan at least
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004, Page 3
The Executive Yuan yesterday called on the Taipei City and Kaohsiung City governments to pay their long-standing national health and labor insurance debts, which total nearly NT$53 billion.
"We hope the two special municipalities recognize the debts they owe to the state and map out a concrete repayment plan," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (³¯¨äÁÚ) told a press conference yesterday.
Chen that Taipei City has defaulted on NT$15.5 billion in health-insurance payments and Kaohsiung City on NT$11.9 billion as of last December. In addition, Taipei has failed to pay national labor insurance payments totaling NT$13.5 billion, and Kaohsiung has yet to pay a labor insurance debt of NT$11.6 billion, as of June.
Yesterday was the deadline set for Taipei to pay off NT$10.7 billion in health insurance payments that accumulated between 2000 and 2002. The city stopped making payments on health insurance in July 2000 and has since been embroiled in a legal tug-of-war with the central government over what it owes the Department of Health (DOH).
Kaohsiung pledged to start paying the debts next year, pending further negotiations with health officials on how to make the payments.
Since the national health insurance system was launched in March 1995, local governments have cited financial difficulties as an excuse for not paying the fees. The Executive Yuan in June 2000 requested all local governments draft repayment plans to amortize their defaults. The Control Yuan also issued a correction measure in June 2001, asking the Executive Yuan to solve the problem.
Except Taipei City and Kaohsiung City, all local governments started paying off their debts in 2002.
Faced the Cabinet's threat of compulsory redemption if it did not present a payment plan, Taipei in March 2002 filed for a constitutional interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices.
The city argued that it was not its constitutional duty to pay health insurance fees for people working in Taipei but living elsewhere.
In April 2002, the DOH agreed to borrow money on the city's behalf to help it pay its debts if the city paid interest.
The city filed a grievance appeal to the DOH in March last year after the DOH said that local governments are legally responsible for sharing health insurance fees for those working in their jurisdiction. The city then took the case to the High Court last November.
Frustrated the two cities' stalling, the Bureau of National Health Insurance appealed to the Ministry of Justice's Administrative Enforcement Agency in January, asking for compulsory redemption.
The bureau asked Taipei to at least pay its default of NT$10.77 billion in health insurance payments from 2000 to 2002 and Kaohsiung NT$9.95 billion in assessments from 1998 to 2002.
Taipei to the Supreme Court in May after the High Court dismissed the case.
The Taipei branch of the Administrative Enforcement Agency on June 14 confiscated 30 pieces of city-owned land with a market value of NT$11.2 billion to pay off its outstanding payments.
The DOH agreed on June 24 to suspend its appeal for compulsory redemption for three months while the city continues to pay the interest fees of the loan.
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