The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday made public 36 suggestions recently put forward by the second-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) program review team, which include allowing non-Taiwanese babies to be covered by the program upon birth, spurring criticism from civic groups.
The suggestions were tendered in April by the review team, which consists of seven specialists brought together by Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) in March last year and is headed by former minister of health Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川).
The specialists drew up the advice after deliberating in eight plenary and 16 group meetings over the past year on the structure, insurance policy, revenue and spending of the second-generation NHI program, which took effect in January last year.
The suggestions include letting babies born to non-Taiwanese parents in the nation be covered by the NHI program upon birth, rather than six months later, per current rules; using the combined annual incomes of insured individuals to determine their eligibility for exemption from the 2 percent supplementary premium; and increasing the current NT$10 million (US$328,790) cap on the maximum amount of taxable income subject to the supplementary premium.
Currently, a 2 percent supplementary premium is imposed on each income exceeding the monthly minimum wage — NT$19,273 — that an insured individual earns from other jobs.
Earnings from five other sources — rent, interest, stock dividends, professional practice and job bonuses that are more than four times the individual’s monthly salary — would also be subject to the supplementary premium if they are higher than NT$5,000.
Other major suggestions include extending the NHI program to all residents of the nation regardless of their nationality and imposing the same premiums on them, based on the “ability-to-pay” principle.
In response, Chu Tong-kuang (曲同光), director of the ministry’s Department of Social Insurance, said the review team has advised the ministry to also include money won by chance, such as lottery rewards, and income from property sales to the list of earnings subject to the supplementary premium.
As for the inclusion of babies born to non-Taiwanese parents in the program shortly after birth, Chu said that since doing so would require legislative amendments, the ministry would consider the idea for the time being.
The ministry said that, as some of the suggestions could cause widespread effects and thus need deliberation, the proposals are to be discussed at the next stage of NHI program reform.
However, civic groups yesterday criticized the proposals.
Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation researcher Shen Pei-han (沈珮涵) said that even if the ministry decided to determine insured people’s eligibility for exemption from the supplementary premium based on the combined annual incomes earned from the above six sources, it would not help assuage long-running contentions that the NHI program was unfair.
“Moreover, that the ministry has repeatedly failed to give serious thought to the root causes of the program’s inequality problems constitutes severe malfeasance,” Shen said.
National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance spokesperson Eva Teng (滕西華) said some of the advice was in the earliest version of the second-generation NHI program design guidebook, criticizing the advisory report as lacking new ideas and foresight.
“Not only do the suggestions fail to meet the public’s expectation for a truly reformed NHI program, they also do not seem to stand a good chance of being carried out,” Teng said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern