A proposed date for the passing of National Health Insurance (NHI) amendments should be settled as soon as possible, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said yesterday.
Yaung urged lawmakers to continue reviewing the reform bill for a second-generation NHI program during the special legislative session scheduled for this week, and to work out a plausible time schedule for the bill’s passage.
He said the bill had already undergone several reviews by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, and that the DOH had held numerous public hearings on the issue. With the exception of 26 clauses in the bill that require further discussion, most have now been addressed, he said.
The legislature needs to give an indication of when the bill will be passed, because the implementation of the second-generation NHI system is complicated and the relevant authorities must plan ahead, Yaung said.
In a move aimed at resolving a dispute over the bill between the rival parties, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) planned to convene a meeting today between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Although the KMT hopes to clear the bill by the end of the special session, the DPP could still throw a wrench into the works by calling into question the content of each individual article, KMT Policy Committee director-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said.
Lin said the KMT would try to come to terms with the DPP in the meeting and would also seek support from KMT legislators who disagree with passing the bill in the ongoing special session.
The DPP has said the legislature should not rush the bill through without full discussion, and should hold off on the review until the next regular legislative session.
It would not be possible to pass the bill during the current special session, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
An anonymous legislative source said five representatives from the KMT, the legislature and the Presidential Office had previously agreed that the purpose of the two-week special legislative session was to deal with four priority issues — the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the admission of Chinese students to Taiwanese universities and colleges, amendments to the election and recall law, and the NHI reforms.
As the three other items have all been dealt with, the KMT is determined to push the NHI reform bill through by the end of this month.
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
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