Representatives from the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance and medical and pharmaceutical associations yesterday voiced strong opposition to legislators’ intention to vote on the second-generation health plan during an extra legislative session.
National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance convener Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had proposed voting on an amendment to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) that would drastically change several aspects of the national health insurance system.
During preliminary reviews, KMT and Democratic Progressive Party legislators were unable to reach a consensus on 25 out of 99 articles. However, rather than hold cross-party negotiations, the KMT said it would vote on the bill during the special legislative session, Son said.
The extra session is expected to start on Wednesday.
“If the legislature rushes the vote on the second-generation health overhaul without fully discussing each controversial article, it would put the Taiwanese public at risk of having to deal with a problematic act,” he said.
Son said issues such as the process by which drug prices are reported, the method of calculating household income to determine premium rates, the publication of medical institutions’ financial reports and insurance compensation coverage all required careful and thorough discussion.
“If legislators could not reach a consensus on the 25 articles after hours of discussion ... how can they expect to have a rational discussion during the special legislative session, when other controversial items, such as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA] and the Statute of Rural Renewal (農村再生條例), will be on the agenda?” he asked.
Taiwan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association president Huang Po-hsiung (黃柏熊) also called for careful evaluation of the bill.
“If lawmakers are determined to reform the insurance system, they should not be influenced by elections. They don’t have to time the passage of the bill,” Huang said.
Taiwan Hospital Association president Delon Wu (吳德朗) said the 25 controversial articles should be fully discussed with the medical and pharmaceutical community, rather than passing them as a package.
“The proposed method of calculating premiums is unclear and unfair. Unlike income tax, payment of premiums is not subject to deductions,” Wu said.
The department in April raised the premium insurance rate from 4.55 percent to 5.17 percent as a stopgap measure to keep the cash-strapped Bureau of National Health Insurance solvent. Under the second-generation plan, 78 percent of those covered by the insurance program would be unaffected by the rate hikes because of offsetting subsidies. The government will fully subsidize the hike in premiums for those whose monthly income for insurance purposes falls below NT$41,000 and will cover 20 percent of the increase for those in the NT$42,000 to NT$53,000 bracket. Those whose premiums are based on incomes of more than NT$53,000 will not be entitled to subsidies.
Representatives from the medical and pharmaceutical communities called on KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), who heads the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, to keep his promise to hold public hearings and cross-party negotiations on the controversial articles.
Additional reporting by CNA
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