The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed an amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) allowing people aged 80 and older to bypass Barthel Index-based health evaluations.
The revisions to the Employment Service Act also extend the waiver to people aged 70 to 79 with stage two or more advanced cancer.
The Barthel Index is a widely used tool in Taiwan to assess an individual’s ability to perform daily activities in clinical practice and research.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Under the amendment, which passed by 52 to 49 votes, evaluation and determination methods for care recipients with indigenous status would be jointly established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Council of Indigenous Peoples.
The Barthel Index requirement has been waived for specific groups, including those receiving long-term care for at least six consecutive months, individuals with early-stage dementia, and those with severe breathing or swallowing difficulties.
In response to the bill’s passage, the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Health and Welfare expressed concern that it could undermine the long-term care system. As the main source nations for migrant workers cannot immediately increase the labor supply, and the recruitment, training and introduction process could take several months, the current shortage could be exacerbated, driving up hiring costs.
Photo: CNA
The amendment could lead to a significant rise in demand for migrant caregivers, as an additional 530,000 Taiwanese would now be eligible to hire live-in caregivers, the labor ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan had approximately 227,000 migrant caregivers as of November last year, with the number growing by about 10,000 per year, according to government data.
However, the labor ministry cautioned that the bill could potentially make it more challenging for critically ill families to hire or retain migrant caregivers, limiting their access to care.
The health ministry said that as about 60 percent of people older than 80 in Taiwan are not disabled, round-the-clock care could speed up their physical decline, and place additional strain on the healthcare and caregiving system.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said that the current policy does not take account of unexpected situations, and with a declining birthrate, the amendment would also help alleviate the burden on younger families.
Meanwhile, amendments to the Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法) also passed yesterday that extended the period to draw zoning maps by six years.
According to Article 45 of the act, the competent authorities must complete their maps within four years after the act goes into effect, or by April 30.
Once the maps are complete, the Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法) would no longer be valid and the Spatial Planning Act would be fully implemented.
However, all three parties proposed lengthening the timeline, voting to extend the original four-year timeline by another six years.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
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