The National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance yesterday criticized the government’s plan to raise the National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums as illegal, unreasonable and unjust.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] says he would always act according to the law, but we really want to question whether the decision is legal, reasonable and just,” alliance convener Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) told a press conference at the legislature. “Of course reform is needed for the NHI, but we don’t need the kind of reform that would fill up the financial loophole for this year, but not the next.”
The Department of Health (DOH) wants to divide people into categories based on their monthly salaries. Those earning more would see their premiums raised by a larger percentage.
“The DOH said the National Health Insurance Act [全民健康保險法] does not prohibit it from creating different categories of premiums according to monthly salary. However, the law does not authorize the DOH to do so either,” alliance spokeswoman Eva Teng (滕西華) said. “The legality of the plan is in question.”
The alliance said it would sue the DOH in administrative court if it goes ahead with its plan.
Teng also questioned whether the plan was as reasonable and just as the DOH claims.
The plan, with its differing premiums based on salary levels, might seem to be fair, but the wealthy would still be able to pay lower premiums, she said.
“People who earn a regular income would be affected, but those who really make big money would not,” Teng said. “For example, wealthy landlords who make a living by renting out properties would appear to have no income on official records, as well as those who live off their investment dividends.”
“Just imagine how unfair it would be that the top-ranking salesperson and the worst-ranking salesperson in the same company — who get the same base salary, but earn very different bonuses from their sales — would be counted as earning the same salary when calculating their NHI premiums,” she said.
Teng urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to adopt the “second-generation NHI” reform bill that has already been sent to the legislature because it would deal with the NHI’s financial woes.
The second-generation NHI refers to a proposal to calculate the premium amounts according to “household income,” including income from salaries, dividends and rental properties.
“The second-generation NHI plan would lead to a more accurate calculation of one’s actual total income,” Son said.
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