An online petition started by a doctor in Taichung called on lawmakers to halt an amendment that would shorten the time needed for Chinese spouses of Taiwanese to gain citizenship in Taiwan.
The amendment could put a strain on Taiwan’s already burdened National Health Insurance (NHI) system, Cheng Ching Hospital thoracic surgery division doctor Tu Cheng-che (杜承哲) said. Doctors have seen many Chinese spouses bring their relatives to hospital emergency rooms, asking for full checkups, he added.
“They [Chinese spouses] even tell their relatives that healthcare in Taiwan is free and is easily accessible, and that healthcare providers in Taiwan would not deny a request for a full checkup,” Tu said.
There were 350,000 Chinese spouses in Taiwan, accounting for 60 percent of all non-Taiwanese spouses in the country, a report published by the Taipei Times on April 6, 2020, showed. The report also said that 130,000 were naturalized.
If all of those naturalized Chinese spouses regularly invited relatives from China to receive medical care here, it could indeed put excessive strain on medical resources. However, the possibility of exacerbating the situation — should there be an increase in naturalized Chinese spouses — should not be a basis for denying them a shorter naturalization process.
In principle, spouses from China should be subject to the same benefits and regulations that apply to other foreign spouses. For example, it is still possible for Cuban nationals to apply for US citizenship if they are married to a US citizen, despite an embargo on Cuba.
Arguably, by imposing the same rules on Chinese as it does on other foreign nationals, the government sends a clear message to Beijing that Taiwan is a sovereign nation that is not subject to the laws of China. If the law allows foreign spouses to bring their relatives to Taiwan for medical treatment, then it would hardly seem right to deny Chinese spouses this right.
If there is an issue of misuse or overuse of medical resources, the government should address that through a separate amendment that makes it more difficult, or even impossible, for relatives of foreign spouses to visit hospitals or clinics in Taiwan except in emergencies. Emergencies could include cases like heart attacks and traffic accidents.
Another option would be to simply charge a premium for those who seek medical treatment without NHI coverage. That money could be used toward resources, which would benefit those who the medical system is intended to help.
“Another issue is equality,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said on Tuesday. Foreigners are required to renounce their original citizenship to acquire Taiwanese citizenship, but China does not agree to Chinese giving up their citizenship, she said.
Wu is correct, but no law enacted by Taiwanese lawmakers could ever compel the Chinese government to allow Chinese to renounce their citizenship.
China is not the only country with such a policy. For example, Costa Rica does not allow its nationals to renounce their citizenship, following a change to its constitution in 1995.
The best approach would be for Taiwan to allow all eligible foreign nationals to naturalize without renunciation of their original citizenship. The US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and many other democracies already allow dual citizenship.
It is actually Taiwan that created an unequal situation by requiring the renunciation of foreign citizenship for naturalization, as Taiwanese are allowed to retain theirs when they become citizens of other countries.
While it is important to protect access to medical and other resources, lawmakers should seek to do so in a way that does not create inequality for eligible foreign nationals who seek Taiwanese citizenship.
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