Legislative resolutions demanding an end to the health insurance fee hikes and the takeover of credit institutions by commercials banks returned to the spotlight again yesterday as Cabinet officials and DPP lawmakers questioned the legality of such moves.
They contended the government is not obligated to observe the resolutions that opposition lawmakers rammed through the legislature before the end of its last session.
"The lawmaking body has no right to meddle with executive discretion by attaching resolutions to the government's budget," DPP Legislator Charles Chiang (江昭儀) told a public hearing in the legislature yesterday.
"Members who dislike any public policies should seek to redress them through legal means," Chiang said.
On Jan. 10, the legislature attached 13 resolutions to the government's budget that requested, among other things, the Cabinet halt health insurance fee hikes and return 36 debt-ridden credit units of farmers' associations to those groups.
The Department of Health and the Ministry of Finance have said they would have difficulty carrying out those resolutions.
The government's legal experts have said the resolutions are non-binding.
Chiang -- who has petitioned the Council of Grand Justices for a ruling on the controversy -- said the two resolutions are problematic since neither has anything to do with the government budget.
Budgetary codes say government agencies should abide by qualifications and constraints added to their proposed budgets.
The requirement, however, does not apply to terms that clash with existing laws.
DPP Legislator Lee Chen-nan (
He said that under the National Health Insurance Law (
The present premium of 4.55 percent of a worker's salary took effect last September.
Previously the premium had been 4.25 percent of salary. In addition, patients have to shoulder higher co-payment rates.
"The plummeting health reserve prompted planners to adjust the fee schedule," said Day Guey-ing (戴桂英), a Department of Health official said at the news conference.
"They had recommended larger hikes but settled for a more modest version to avoid a public backlash," Day said.
Officials have repeatedly said they cannot keep the National Health Insurance Program afloat without an increase in premiums and co-payment fees.
But opponents insist that the program would remain viable if authorities step up efforts to crack down on dishonest medical institutions and pharmaceutical firms.
Kao Chung-hsien (高宗賢), who is in charge of the health department's legal affairs, said he and his colleagues have closely studied the resolution and concluded that it was meant to serve as a suggestion.
"The department values the advice but cannot put it into practice in light of the real situation," Kao said.
Tsai Feng-lien (蔡豐年), a finance ministry official, said it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the ministry to return the 36 grassroots credit units that have already been incorporated into commercial banks to the farmers' associations they originally belonged to.
Tsai said the units had sustained huge debts and so the Financial Reconstruction Fund could not but help take control of them in 2001 as part of the government's effort to reform the nation's financial sector.
"That cannot be undone, though the government agreed last November to halt reform of other credit units," he said.
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