Starting immediately, an estimated 370,000 disadvantaged people whose national health insurance cards were blocked because of payment defaults will have their debt temporarily pardoned, the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) said yesterday.
The card-locking regulations will be relaxed for one year for disadvantaged people who qualify for the “Disadvantaged Medical Care Program,” a plan aimed at making the disadvantaged feel at ease when seeking medical treatment, bureau director-general Day Guey-ing (戴桂英) said.
According to the program, near-poor households are defined as families where each family member’s monthly income is less than 1.5 times the low-income standard, their property value is below the low-income standard and total monthly income from interest is less than NT$10,000 (US$331).
Children under 18 years of age and families recognized by local governments as “special families requiring assistance,” where each member’s monthly income is also less than 2.5 times the low--income standard, can benefit from the program as well.
The low-income standard varies between local governments, Day said. For Taipei City residents, the standard is NT$14,614, whereas in Kaohsiung City, the threshold is lower at NT$11,309.
Qualified people can call a toll-free number to reactivate their cards or wait for local government officials to readjust their lists of disadvantaged persons, which would take longer.
Day said under the existing system, people with low-income certificates seeking emergency medical assistance can apply for immediate national health insurance. Nevertheless, these regulations only allow for a one-time pardon rather than for one-year.
In response to charities’ demands that the proposed second--generation national health insurance stop the card-suspension mechanism for all nationals, Day said the government would not relax the regulation for people with stable incomes, as that doesn’t accord with notions of social justice.
Among 200,000 people with sufficient incomes, but who refuse to pay the premium, Day cited the case of a man who had an income of NT$40 million and refused to pay an accumulated NT$13,000 premium.
Day argued that card blocking was therefore still a necessary restraint.
Day reiterated that the period of the pardon would be only one year, after which time people will need to undergo another status evaluation. The accumulated premium must be paid when the person is financially capable.
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