Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said yesterday that health insurance premium rates would be raised within six months to help solve the National Health Insurance system’s shortfalls.
In an interview on a local radio station, Yaung Chih-liang reiterated the need for higher premium rates but said other measures to cut costs and increase revenues were being considered.
“I will do my best to carry out the government’s policy of premium adjustment for the National Health Insurance within six months,” Yaung said.
Prior to last Saturday’s local elections, Yaung said a premium rate hike was necessary but denied that there was a timetable for such a move. At the time, he said the premium, set at 4.55 percent of monthly salaries with a ceiling of NT$131,700, is much lower than what he described as the “reasonable rate” of 6.97 percent.
He warned that if the premium wasn’t raised the health system would be bankrupt in 10 years.
Those comments led some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators to blame him for the party’s poor showing in Saturday’s polls.
Yaung said yesterday that he respected the lawmakers’ opinions and admitted that it had been “bad timing” to talk about hiking premium rates before the elections.
He said he would take “general responsibility” for it, but he did not back down from his stance that a rate hike was necessary, especially as Taiwan’s population continues to age.
A senior citizen costs approximately 3.3 times more in medical expenses than a younger person, he said, which was the main reason for the system’s financial problems.
Rising health care expenses averaging about US$1,000 per person per year have taken their toll on the health system’s finances.
The economically disadvantaged would suffer the most if the program shut down because the wealthy could afford private insurance alternatives, he said.
As for the timing of a rate hike, Yaung said he hoped to accomplish it within six months and would do all he can to make it happen, though other measures were also under consideration to ease the burden of rate hikes on the poor.
“The ultimate goal is for economically disadvantaged groups to pay less but enjoy the same health care protection as those who can afford insurance and help to pay more,” he said.
Yaung also said he would call on legislators to convince them that a rate hike is necessary.
The health insurance program’s accumulated deficit will reach NT$50 billion by the end of this year, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS