The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) yesterday reported that its quarterly fund earnings turned positive for the first time in three years, showing that a recent increase in the insurance premium rate has contributed to the gradual closing of the fund’s deficit.
On April 1, the premium rate was raised to 5.17 percent from the previous 4.55 percent of the insurer’s registered insurance subscription.
Aside from the premium rate hike, the highest insurance subscription level was also raised from NT$131,700 to NT$182,000 in April.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Employees in the private sector are responsible for 30 percent of the cost, while the government shoulders 10 percent and the employer pays the remaining 60 percent.
The rate increase had been touted by government officials as the optimal way to solve the healthcare system’s debt problem.
REVENUE UP
Yesterday’s quarterly report showed that in the second quarter of this year, the NHI fund took in revenues of NT$116.1 billion (US$3.6 billion), which was NT$11.4 billion more than in the first quarter of this year.
This quarter’s net gain of NT$3.2 billion are the first positive earnings for three years and have helped to fill some of the fund’s financial deficit, which now stands at NT$57.2 billion.
RECOVERY
The bureau remains optimistic that the remaining deficit can be recovered if the economy continues to recover and the national income continues to rise as more people find jobs in a better market, said Lee Shao-chen (李少珍), chief of the bureau’s finance section.
Before the rate hike, the health insurance system had recorded a deficit of NT$60.4 billion in the first quarter. The bureau estimated that if nothing was done about the deficit, it would double to NT$101.5 billion by the end of the year.
Lee said that the premium hike would result in an increase of NT$52.2 billion in annual premium revenues and thus help ensure the financial stability of the national insurance program for at least two years.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift