The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday unveiled a policy proposal that would end government payment of health insurance premiums for Chinese citizens visiting Taiwan for short periods as professionals.
If the regulation clears the Executive Yuan, visiting Chinese specialists, professionals and academics covered by National Health Insurance (NHI) would be required to pay all of their own premiums in the Level 1 category, DOH officials said.
The Taiwanese government currently pays 40 percent of the NHI premiums for these Chinese professionals.
NHI premiums for Level 1 professionals are calculated at 4.55 percent of their monthly salary, with a salary ceiling of NT$131,700 (US$4,100), said Chu Tong-kuang (曲同光), deputy convener of a DOH task force on insurance premiums.
This means that top-earning professional Chinese expatriates would have to pay NHI premiums of about NT$5,900 per month, Chu said.
Chu said that Chinese professionals who earn less than NT$131,700 per month in Taiwan would be allowed to pay lower premiums if they can prove they earn less than that.
Currently, the premiums of Chinese professionals working in Taiwan are calculated based on a Level 6 status, which means their premium payments amount to NT$659 per person per month.
This policy has been criticized by legislators from the the ruling and opposition parties as being “too accommodating.”
“Since many people complained, we’ve now worked to adjust it so these [Chinese professionals] would have to pay from their own pockets, eliminating the problem of which agencies should pay for them,” Chu said.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all