The Taiwan Health Care Reform Foundation has called on lawmakers to amend laws to reclassify medical foundations’ revenue, citing a growing public need for treatment-related financial assistance.
Such foundations should have their income balanced based on annual revenue and not on the medical services that they provide, foundation vice chief executive Chu Hsieh-kuang (朱顯光) said on Saturday.
A proposed amendment would make an additional NT$800 million to NT$1.8 billion (US$26.6 million to US$59.8 million) available to families with medical-related needs, Chu said.
The foundation’s request is reasonable since the money spent by the public on medical foundations for items other than medical care is consequential, former minister of health and welfare Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said.
“No one goes to a hospital for dinner, but if you are there receiving medical treatment, you might eat there,” he said.
Medical foundations are like the “people’s hospitals” and they carry the burden of responsibility to the public, he added.
Medical corporations, including foundations and associations, are institutions concerned with medical treatment and “the only difference is that foundations are established through donations and they can receive tax credits for donated funds,” he said.
“However, they are not allowed to redistribute any surplus revenue since they are not-for-profit,” he added, citing the Chang Gung Medical Foundation, Cathay General Hospital and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation as examples.
Medical associations are established through collaborative investment by their members, so surplus revenue can be distributed among members, he said.
Half of the nation’s medical foundations have produced surpluses since 2015, he said.
Chu said that 10 percent of those surpluses could be used to help people in financial need.
“Of the 10 percent surplus, only 1 to 2 percent comes from medical services. With the way their revenue is balanced under current regulations, this means level income,” he said, adding that regulations prevent surpluses from non-medical sources from being used to provide social welfare.
Five amendments to the Medical Care Act (醫療法) await reading in the Legislative Yuan and lawmakers should act quickly on them, he said.
The foundation said it hopes for greater transparency on social welfare standards and resources.
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