The official restructuring of the Department of Health as the Ministry of Health and Welfare was completed yesterday, with the integration of resources and the establishment of the Social and Family Affairs Administration and the Department of Social Insurance being the major changes made, the ministry said.
The Bureau of National Health Insurance has become the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) and the Bureau of Health Promotion is now the Health Promotion Administration.
The Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration will keep the names, but are now a notch higher in the bureaucratic hierarchy.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Other notable changes are the incorporation of the Social and Family Affairs Administration and the Department of Social Insurance.
The former has integrated the bodies that are in charge of the welfare of women, senior citizens and people with disabilities that were previously under the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Social Affairs, as well as the Child Welfare Bureau, which was also previously under the interior ministry.
The goal of the administration is the implementation of a family and community-centered total care system, the agency said.
The social insurance department, on the other hand, has been restructured to have a better and more comprehensive grip on the three major social insurances, the NHI, the national pension and long-term care insurance.
The integration of resources made possible by the restructuring, among other tasks, is “to break the cycle of poverty-made illness and illness-made poverty and to provide better care for elderly people in an aging society,” the ministry said.
That is to be achieved by strengthening social insurance, developing a long-term care system, building healthcare and welfare clouds for comprehensive care, upgrading medical services in rural areas and connecting the public health and social resources provided at the central level and those at the local level to build an all-encompassing social security network, the ministry said.
PIVOTAL ROLE: Taiwan’s importance in the global chip supply chain can be bolstered by domestic equipment manufacturing, President Tsai Ing-wen said Efforts must be made to better secure Taiwan’s place in the global supply chain by localizing production of equipment and facilities used by the semiconductor industry, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday. Tsai discussed the issue during a meeting with representatives from the Taiwan Electronic Equipment Industry Association at the Presidential Office in Taipei. Product shortages throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly of automotive chips — highlighted the pivotal role of Taiwan in the global supply chain, she said. Tsai thanked the association for cooperating with the government on the shared goal of localizing production of important semiconductor industry equipment.
TRACING UNDER WAY: The CECC has identified six transmission chains among 25 recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, including those linked to a restaurant and a bank The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 54 new COVID-19 infections — 44 imported and 10 local — and identified six transmission chains among local cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the imported cases are 18 who tested positive upon arrival at the airport and 26 who tested positive during quarantine. Of the local cases, seven are associated with a cluster infection at a Tasty Steak (西堤牛排) outlet in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District (中壢), one is linked to a family of four with COVID-19 reported on Monday, one is a family member of an
BILINGUAL NATION 2030: Those interested can apply online, while recruitment would continue until all of the positions are filled, the Ministry of Education said The recruitment of foreign English teachers for elementary and junior-high schools would be expanded in the 2022-2023 school year as part of Taiwan’s efforts to become a bilingual country, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said yesterday. In a statement, the ministry said that it has since 2004 hired 81 foreign nationals per year to teach English in 16 smaller counties and cities to build a better English-learning environment for students. However, for the 2022-2023 school year, the number of foreign English teachers recruited would increase to 531, with some of them to be posted to Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan
Taiwan’s 5G service would not interfere with civil aviation, as there is a broad guard frequency band between the two systems, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday. The 5G system’s possible risks to flight safety came under scrutiny after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week warned that 5G services in the C-band spectrum might interfere with radio altimeters on certain types of aircraft, which could prevent a plane from stopping on the runway after landing. Pilots use radio altimeters when landing under low-visibility. Major US carriers last week also said that 5G service plans offered by AT&T and Verizon
RSS