In yet another effort to keep universal health insurance afloat, the Bureau of National Health yesterday started recruiting a 20-member citizens' panel to discuss viable strategies.
"National Health Insurance is everyone's business. It belongs to everyone and should be decided by everyone," bureau president Liu Chien-hsiang (劉見祥) said.
The national health insurance system has been troubled by financial deficits for years. This year, the bureau's income stood at NT$352.6 billion, while its expenditures amounted to NT$355.2 billion.
"We estimate that spending will soar to NT$369.8 billion next year," said Lai Chu-wen (賴主文), vice manager of the bureau's financial analysis division.
To curb the ever-rising medical expenditure resulting from an ageing population, the bureau put a reimbursement cap on large hospitals early this year. The budget ceiling drew outraged responses from hospitals and thousands of health workers took to the streets to protest the measure in October.
Hospital managers said that they would need an extra NT$30 billion on top of the NT$260 billion allotted to them by the bureau.
Since early this year, bureau officials have held seminars nationwide in the hopes of building a consensus on how to relieve the financial dilemma, but to no avail.
In a bid to give the public a say in the policymaking process, the bureau called on academics to organize a citizens' panel to hammer out a viable solution.
"The 20 chosen citizens will attend a five-day meeting and classes on health insurance issues. The fundamental belief of the deliberative model is that common citizens, after being adequately informed, can understand, discuss and participate in a specialized subject such as the fiscal balance of the insurance system," said Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), an associate professor at National Taiwan University, who helped organize the panel.
All citizens over the age of 20 are eligible to apply for membership on the panel. The closing date for applications is Dec. 23.
The executive committee will randomly choose 20 members to include people from different social strata, age groups, educational levels and places of residence.
"It is important that the composition will reflect the diversity and heterogeneity of our society," Lin said. To ensure the panel's objectivity, Lin said that anyone with a direct stake in the issue would be excluded from attending the meeting.
The executive committee will convene next Friday to announce the names of lecturers and keynote speakers who will attend the meeting.
"We hope that we can attract at least 2,000 applicants in a week's time," said Louis Liu (劉在銓), general manager of the bureau's department of planning and evaluation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard