Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday said that while the government sees Huang An (黃安) as a citizen who should be granted his rights, he personally feels unhappy about Huang’s return to Taiwan for medical treatment.
Chang made the remarks when asked by lawmakers on the legislative floor about Huang’s return as a patient, to which Chang said that, as premier, he believes Huang, “as one of our nationals,” should be treated equally in terms of his rights to the nation’s medical resources.
“However, from my personal perspective, certainly I am not too happy about it,” Chang said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
When pressed on why this was, Chang said: “Everybody saw what he has done before.”
Huang, a Taiwanese singer who has since the late 1990s spent most of his time in China, has infuriated the public with his labeling of certain Taiwanese entertainers as Taiwanese independence supporters in China. Sixteen-year-old K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) was the most recent victim subjected to Huang’s “tip-offs.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) accused Huang An of “feeding off and vandalizing [Taiwan]” at the same time.
“The Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan, is a sovereign country and a humane one. It has offered assistance to many places where disasters have occurred,” she said in the legislature yesterday.
“However, I have developed complicated feelings when watching news about Huang An these months, when he called Taiwan a shitty place and said he had to go to China for his career as he could not feed his family with the money he earned in Taiwan,” she added. “Everyone has the right to pursue their career in a foreign land, but we surely do not welcome a person who constantly disparages [Taiwan] when he is abroad.”
“The ROC, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country, and we should not allow certain nationals to denigrate the country when they are abroad and then come back for National Health Insurance [NHI] benefits,” she said.
She called on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to propose amendments aiming at excluding cases like this “for the NHI to be used by the vulnerable groups who truly need it.”
The premier, in response to media queries about the possibility of restricting NHI usage, said the issue had been discussed when he was a minister without portfolio.
“Those nationals living in China and other countries, without household registration in Taiwan [or having it canceled for living overseas for more than two years], cannot reactivate their NHI coverage before having recovered their household registration for at least six months,” he said.
According to the NHI regulations, those who hold a household registration in the nation, but have been abroad for more than 183 days, but less than two years, can reactivate the coverage immediately, but are required to pay at least three full months of premiums.
“Financially speaking, when you look at the numbers, these overseas nationals have actually contributed more to the NHI than they have used,” Chang said.
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