Minister of Health Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said yesterday the ministry was mulling “taxing” the wealthy to help solve the National Health Insurance (NHI) system’s financial woes.
The ministry is mulling requiring people who win the lottery, inherit wealth or real estate or have income from stock earnings or other forms of non-salaried income to pay more than their NHI premium, Yeh told a press conference at the Government Information Office.
The tax base for this group would be about NT$1.5 trillion (US$44.9 billion), Yeh said.
The ministry was also considering lowering premiums for those who cannot afford the cost, he said.
The plan, if approved by the Cabinet and the legislature, would affect between 2 million and 3 million wealthy people and help some 7 million economically disadvantaged people, Yeh said.
Yeh said the NHI system would face a debt of NT$26 billion by the end of the year.
“The debt could amount to NT$50 billion in another two years if we don’t do something,” he said.
Calling the measure “necessary,” Yeh said the NHI system would “deteriorate” without the plan.
“The rich should pay more while the poor should pay less. This is how it ought to be done,” he said.
The ministry would provide details of the plan, which would be enforced “until the economy recovers,” to the premier and the legislature by the end of the year, he said.
Yeh also said the ministry hoped to raise the health surcharge on cigarettes to NT$20 per pack by Lunar New Year and suggested that 62 percent of the surcharge should go toward supporting the NHI system.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS