The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) yesterday announced stricter regulations for those who receive the tobacco health and welfare surcharge to help them pay their National Health Insurance premiums.
EXCLUDED
The new regulations stipulate that households whose total annual interest from savings exceeds NT$10,000, whose annual income from stock shares exceeds NT$20,000 or whose total annual income received from insurance premiums exceeds NT$25,200 will be excluded.
‘ANTI-RICH’
Hung Ching-jung (洪清榮), deputy of the BNHI’s Department of Business, said that the new regulations could be described as being “anti-rich” because they will help stop applications from unemployed people who are rich enough to survive without working.
“Some families qualify for the subsidy as none of their members are working. But, if you delve a little deeper, you often find that these people actually possess lots of savings or lots of stocks,” Hung said.
“Applications from such people make the policy unfair,” he said.
HALF YEAR
Hung said that a total of 670,000 applications have been approved in the six months since the policy came into effect.
He said that once an application is approved, the reimbursement from the tobacco health and welfare surcharge will be paid out for six months.
When renewal is due, the BNHI will make another detailed check of the applicant’s financial status to decide whether to continue paying the subsidy.
SMOKING TAX
Starting from June 1 this year, the tobacco health and welfare surcharge was increased from NT$10 to NT$20 per pack of cigarettes.
Four percent of the surcharge is distributed to low-income families to help them pay their National Health Insurance premiums.
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