The Taiwan Health Reform Foundation yesterday accused some legislators of conflicts of interest while reviewing medical bills, and urged the government to make the legislative process for such bills more transparent.
"Since the Legislative Yuan Gazette only provides the meeting's conclusion for the record, there is no way for voters to know a legislator's stance on a controversial budget bill," the foundation's president Chang Ly-yun (
According to the Foundation, the party caucuses shirk public scrutiny by engaging in closed-door negotiations on the annual NT$360 billion health budget.
"We pay the NT$400 insurance premium every month, but we are not allowed even a look into the actuarial black box," Chang said.
The closed-door negotiations are potential hotbeds of under-the-table dealings, the foundation said.
It singled out doctor-turned-legislator Chiu Yeong-jen (邱永仁) for criticism. Chiu runs a dialysis center in Kaohsiung for patients with defective kidneys but also serves as a committee member reviewing the health budget.
"Wavering between the government's goal to minimize cost and the hospital's goal to maximize profit, how would a legislator like Chiu compromise between his conflicting roles?" Chang said.
Chiu defended himself by noting that although he is a member of the committee, he has not attended any meetings. To avoid any conflict of interest, Chiu said that he has attended another committee to oversee the high-tech development budget instead.
"For the past six legislative sessions, I never went to the health committee. This may be a politically motivated smear campaign," said Chiu, who is running as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator-at-large.
The foundation also berated the government for failing to force hospitals to declare their finances before considering another insurance hike. DPP legislator Chen Sheng-hung (陳勝宏) and Tony Jian (簡肇棟) came under fire for their objection to making hospitals' financial statements public.
Since the foundation called for the Department of Health (DOH) to publish financial statements of the 54 hospitals funded by nonprofit foundations, less than ten have put their financial statements on their Web sites. The DOH has demanded that all foundation-funded hospitals declare their financial statements by Jan. 15. However, no penalty has been stipulated for failing to comply.
Faced with the foundation's charges, Jian said that the foundation's appeal for more transparent hospital finances is "logically flawed."
"Asking a hospital to declare how much profit it reaps is like asking a person what your salary is," Jian said. "It is an issue of privacy."
To highlight legislators' suspected meddling in health affairs, the foundation cited a survey made by People First Party Legislator Cheng San-yuan (鄭三元) in 2002, in which 7 superintendents of the 27 DOH-funded hospitals admitted to be under pressure from legislators lobbying on behalf of certain drugs.
The foundation called for all legislative hopefuls to pledge that they will avoid conflicts of interest and establish transparency as the "rule of thumb" in reviewing the health budget.
"Any disputed bill should be subject to public scrutiny and not just decided in a room by a handful of legislators," Chang said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS