As the Cabinet prepares to implement President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) long-term care policy, sources said Premier Lin Chuan (林全) recently approved an interministerial task force, with Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) as the convener.
Other members of the long-term care task force include Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lu Pau-ching (呂寶靜) and the deputy ministers of the Veterans Affairs Council, the Ministry of the Interior and other agencies, as well as specialists and representatives of civic groups, the sources said.
Starting this month, the task force plans to make grassroots visits to promote the government’s “long-term care services program 2.0”; establish a comprehensive community long-term care system; and gain understanding of the difficulties that government-commissioned long-term care facilities face, the sources said.
The government had originally planned to raise the inheritance and gift tax from 10 percent to 20 percent and the sales tax from 5 percent to 5.5 percent to pay for long-term care services, but the plan sparked controversy.
Lin Chuan negotiated with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators at a lunch meeting on June 16, which concluded that long-term care services are a “must,” but the first step would be to communicate to the public the importance of establishing a comprehensive long-term care system, so that people will not view the plan as the government raising taxes as soon shortly after taking office.
The Executive Yuan is to set aside the tax hikes for now and establish the long-term care task force, sources said, adding that the task force plans to hold its first meeting on Sunday.
Tsai campaigned for a “long-term care services program 2.0” during last year’s campaign and said in February that her administration aims to create a community-based, popularized and affordable long-term care system, in which all older people can feel at ease.
She also spoke about establishing integrated community service centers and transforming local health bureaus into “community healthcare management centers,” to create local healthcare networks.
An estimated NT$30 billion to NT$40 billion (US$931.16 million to US$1.24 billion) would be needed in the initial stages of the government’s long-term care services, a government official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the Tsai administration would discuss with legislators about how to fund the program.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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