Civic groups yesterday urged lawmakers to carefully inspect every article of the proposed second-generation health plan, rather than hold discussions on it behind closed doors during cross-party negotiations.
The National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance and several other NGOs held a joint press conference yesterday protesting the Executive Yuan's urgency in getting its version of the amendments to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) passed by the legislature. The groups said many parts of the act require discussion and the entire process should be transparent.
Amendments are scheduled to be discussed at the legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee meeting tomorrow but the alliance said it has received word that the Executive Yuan hopes to “breeze through” the first reading at the committee meeting while conducting the main discussions during cross-party negotiations, which are not open to the public.
“We are worried that [discussion of] the National Health Insurance Act will be rushed through committee examination,” said Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), convener of the alliance.
“Cross-party negotiations have always been criticized by civic groups as secretive operations that are not publicized nor transparent,” he said.
“The legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee should carefully inspect every article [of the proposed amendment]. In the event that there are disagreements, there should be public hearings to invite input from civic groups,” Son said.
The groups said that issues such as the process of drug price reporting, methods of calculating household income to determine premium rates, publicizing medical institutions’ financial reports and insurance compensation coverage are all worthy of careful and thorough discussion.
“We understand that lawmakers want a speedy passage [of the Act] so that it will not affect results of the upcoming elections,” said Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬), secretary general of Taiwan Women's Link.
“However, the Act may be around for five to 10 years. Will we really be content with it if we hurry its passage?” she said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching