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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS