Health reform groups yesterday criticized the government’s policy of raising the minimum threshold for imposing the National Health Insurance’s (NHI) supplementary premium on income from part-time jobs as a move aimed at winning votes.
The policy — raising the minimum threshold for imposing the NHI supplementary premiums from NT$5,000 to NT$20,000 starting from Jan. 1 next year — was announced on Thursday by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Representatives of civic groups yesterday morning held up signs reading “only listening to the Financial Supervisory Commission, not the National Health Insurance Committee,” and “Making profit for capital gains, harsh on salary earners,” criticizing the policy and chanting demands for a “reasonable and fair” NHI system.
Invited to speak at the protest and sign a petition with the groups, former minister of health Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said: “Only ghosts would believe that the policy was not made according to political calculations,” because it is not urgent and does not directly improve the quality of healthcare.
According to regulations, adjustments to NHI premiums should be decided by the NHI committee, which consists of delegates from different groups and academics, but now the ministry arbitrarily excludes the committee from the decisionmaking process, which is disrespectful to the body which represents the public, he said.
“Would it not be better to use the NHI reserve fund to take care of low-income households or easing the working conditions of medical staff? That way the whole population would be able to benefit from it,” he said.
“Money from the NHI system should be returned to the NHI and the NHI committee should decide how to make use of it,” Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation chief executive officer Joanne Liu (劉淑瓊) said, adding that the group is in favor of using the NHI reserve fund to improve the quality of medical services, rather than sparing some people from paying supplementary premiums on non-salary incomes.
Kuo Ming-cheng (郭明政), a professor of law at National Chengchi University, said the second-generation NHI program was designed to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, but as it had not yet succeeded in collecting premiums by total household income, the policy is once again only profiting the few people with non-salary incomes.
“Salary earners — about 80 percent of the population — are carrying rich people on their backs, widening the gap between the rich and the poor,” Raging Citizens Act Now representative Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲) said.
“The policy is aimed at encouraging investment and punishing salaried employees,” she said, adding that even medical staff at hospitals are victims of the current NHI system, which benefits the enterprises that own hospitals, not its employees.
“The NHI system should not be politically manipulated to secure votes,” Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice and Patient Safety secretary-general Lai I-ching (賴奕菁) said, adding that the system had never paid medical staff enough, causing hospital management to impose harsh working conditions and resulting in talented staff quitting their jobs.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS