The Bureau of National Health Insurance will become a regular government body, and the sizeable annual bonuses enjoyed by its employees will be reduced accordingly, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told lawmakers yesterday.
"We are still working on the details, but this is the direction in which we are moving," Su said on the legislative floor yesterday in response to a question from Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lo Chi-ming (
Although the bureau is technically a government office, it is operated like a private firm. Its employees received annual bonuses of up to four-and-a-half times their monthly salary this year, while other government employees only receive one-and-a-half months' salary.
Department of Health Minister Hou Sheng-mou (
However, it is run as a private firm and its employees' annual bonus depends on how much money the bureau has saved or earned for the government.
Making the bureau a regular government department would definitely solve a lot of problems, Hou said.
Meanwhile, Su denied a report in a Chinese-language newspaper yesterday that the Cabinet has already resolved to make the bureau part of the Department of Health.
"This is not true. No decision has been made yet," Su said.
Council of Labor Affairs Minister Lee Ying-yuan (
However, it will take time for the DOH and CLA to hammer out the details and decide who would take over the health insurance bureau, Lee said.
When asked by Lo whether he would be former premier Frank Hsieh's (
"If I cannot even do my current job well, it would not make any sense for me to say anything more, would it?" Su said.
Su said that he and Hsieh are both dedicated to Taiwan, but his priority now is to do his job well, because it will also help the Democratic Progressive Party's presidential campaign, no matter who represents the party in 2008.
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