If the government wants to make the second-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) program fair it should scrap the supplementary premiums mechanism and charge a premium based on household incomes, civic groups and academics said yesterday.
The critics, including former health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), told a press conference that regulations on premium calculations should be revised so that premium fees are proportional to income.
Implementation of the second-generation NHI program, which is scheduled to take effect in July, will reportedly be postponed until January next year because of concerns about its financial viability.
Photo: Chien Jun-fong, Taipei Times
The supplementary premiums, which were added to the new NHI program in January last year after the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) was amended, use different rates for various groups and income categories, and would make the new program more unfair, Taiwan Women’s Link president Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) said.
Yaung, who saw the law amended before stepping down in February last year, said he had always insisted that the premium calculation should be based on total household income, but the legislature’s Finance Committee overturned the Social Welfare and Environment Hygiene Committee’s proposal at the last minute.
“The supplementary premium was adopted because the Finance Committee had failed to respect the proposal of a more professional committee and more than 100 experts,” he said, adding that some lawmakers “should have avoided a conflict of interest,” without elaborating.
The former minister said he was in a painful dilemma in January last year.
“If the law was not amended in time, I was not sure if it would be amended at all. At the same time, I knew the amended legislation was far from what I had hoped for,” he said.
Yaung said he still hoped the new program would be implemented sooner rather than later, because the new program benefits the underprivileged and women more than the current insurance scheme.
The former minister also said that, despite the claims made in a Ministry of Finance statement, a formula based on total household income was feasible and lawmakers should try to amend the law before the current legislative session concludes.
Explaining why the supplementary premium mechanism is unfair, National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance (NHICSA) convener Sun Yu-lien (孫友聯) said that while jobs in certain categories carry a premium of 1.47 percent, wages for part-time jobs, which are usually held by poorer people, would be charged at 2 percent.
“It is also ironic that, under the new program, a jobless person would end up paying a higher premium than someone with a monthly wage of under NT$40,000 and an underprivileged kid working in a convenience store would have to pay the supplementary premium if his working hours exceeded a certain threshold,” Sun said.
NHICSA spokesperson Eva Teng (滕西華) said the new premium regime would “neither broaden the premium base, streamline the administrative procedure nor increase premium revenue” for the government.
As the financial status of the NHI program would remain healthy at least until the end of this year and the presidential election has been concluded, Teng said it was now a good time to relaunch discussion of premiums based on household income.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if the next president of that country decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said today. “We would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said during a legislative hearing. At the same time, Taiwan is paying close attention to the Central American region as a whole, in the wake of a visit there earlier this year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lin said. Rubio visited Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, during which he
RSS