The fixed-budget policy for hospitals will continue to be implemented despite the resignation of a top aide, Department of Health Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Deputy director Chang Hong-jen (張鴻仁) stepped down on Monday amid severe criticism of the policy.
Yesterday, People First Party (PFP) legislators asked Chen if he would shoulder responsibility for national health insurance regulations.
"It's obvious that mistakes about policymaking were shouldered by Chang, a deputy, rather than the head of the department," PFP Legislator Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) said to Chen at the Legislative Yuan.
Chen said that a public meeting would be held in mid-December to discuss concerns about the issue. He said he was confident that decisions made by the Bureau of National Health Insurance would not lead to problems.
"If our decisions run into any trouble, I'll step down to shoulder responsibility," he said.
Statistics show that between 1995 -- when the national health insurance program was launched under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government -- and 2000, government expenditure on health insurance soared from NT$14 billion to NT$24.5 billion.
After 2000, the expenditure continued to increase at an annual rate of 12.5 percent. That meant the government was spending NT$1.7 billion more annually to sustain the policy.
Chen said he did not see the KMT shouldering any responsibility for huge financial losses caused by its policy.
Shen said the poorly designed fixed-budget policy for hospitals had led to bad service in hospitals.
Chen, however, said Shen lacked solid evidence to back up the accusations.
Chen said the average person pays 14.5 visits to hospitals or clinics a year and the high frequency of outpatient services did lead to some waste of medical resources. He the fixed-budget policy for hospitals would help avoid such waste.
Meanwhile, Premier Yu Shyi-kun reiterated that there will be no hike in health insurance premiums during his tenure.
Yu was speaking during a question-and-answer session at the legislature after Shen asked him whether the premiums would be raised to "salvage" the financially troubled national health insurance program.
Yu said the Cabinet had no plan to raise premiums before his term expires on Feb. 1 when the new legislature is sworn in.
In other developments, Yu also told the legislature that an all-volunteer military service system is still in the planning stage.
"The time is not yet ripe for implementing an all-volunteer military service system," he said.
"The Ministry of National Defense is still working on the plan and it has not yet reached the policy formulation stage. It will take a long time to transform the conscription-dominated system into an all-volunteer one," he said.
Yu was responding to PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang's (林郁方) question about the feasibility of the ministry's five-year troop restructuring plan, under which the ministry will need an additional NT$380.9 billion to finance the volunteer-recruitment plan.
Yu said the ministry estimate was just a preliminary calculation.
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