The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday defended its second-generation health plan, saying the new plan would benefit households with more financial dependents such as spouses or children.
DOH officials yesterday continued to answer legislators’ questions about the proposed amendments to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee meeting.
The department has recently come under fire from the Consumers’ Foundation and other civic groups, which have said that the second-generation health plan would create a heavier burden for ordinary single or double-income households, while letting the wealthy pay relatively little.
Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), convener of the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance, said that a majority of families have few children and because they have few dependents, these small families would still bear the brunt of rising insurance premiums.
Son said that a public hearing was necessary to discuss issues such as which types of income are included in the calculation of premiums charged per household.
Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) defended the health plan by saying that the premium rate would most likely not exceed 2.7 percent, and that the public would not see their premiums soar to high levels as some critics have suggested.
Chu Tong-kuang (曲同光), a deputy convener of a DOH task force on insurance premiums, said that the second-generation plan would be more beneficial to households with more dependents, because each additional dependent would be charged a diminishing premium, while households with fewer dependents and more income sources may have to shoulder a heavier share of the burden.
DOH officials confirmed that certain households, such as a single person earning a single income with no dependents, would have to pay more under the new plan.
However, a dual-income family with dependents such as parents and children would pay less than under the current plan, they said.
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