Two insurance companies are considering offering new policies designed for people who need treatment due to serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The insurers plan to offer the products to individuals, but they have not finalized the scope of coverage nor the size of premiums, Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei yesterday.
“Once they [the insurers] submit their applications to launch the new products, we will expedite the review process so that the products can be put on the market and become available for consumers faster, if they qualify,” Shih said.
Photo: CNA
She did not identify the insurance companies.
Shih’s remarks came after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) asked the commission if there are existing insurance policies to help people deal with any adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines.
“According to my understanding, no insurance policies would cover the risks,” Lai said, adding that the commission should address the issue, as controversies might arise after more people receive COVID-19 jabs.
The issue would be important, as some countries have delayed the rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over reports of blood clots, he added.
Lai asked the commission if it was encouraging the public to receive vaccinations, as the planned insurance policies would protect them.
“We think the vaccines recommended by the Ministry of Health and Welfare should not be problematic, but if consumers want the [insurance] products, we would make them available,” commission Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS