As the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of deliberately delaying the passage of a bill on long-term care services on the pretext of lacking an agreement on the source of funding, a civic group said a law without stable funding would not solve the problem.
The draft of the long-term care services act has been reviewed by the legislative committee and is awaiting its third reading by the legislature’s general assembly. However, as the two major party caucuses diverge on the source of the funding for the services, the bill was discussed in cross-party negotiations for the eighth time yesterday.
“If the negotiation [that had been scheduled to take place yesterday afternoon] fails again, we will directly put the bill to a vote on Friday,” KMT Legislator Chiang Hui-cheng (江惠貞) said.
KMT deputy caucus whip Lai Kuo-tung (廖國棟) criticized the DPP for boycotting the bill by requesting a tax increase.
“They want a 0.5 percent increase in the sales tax and to raise the inheritance and gift taxes by 10 percent, but that would shift the burden to our industries and workers. Look at Japan, which hiked its sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent and consequently halted its economic momentum.”
The KMT caucus said it suspected that the DPP has been obstructing the passage of the bill for political reasons.
“DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said last month that the long-term care services act would be established if she gets elected. Why wait until then?” KMT Legislator Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁) asked.
“What is urgently needed by the large group of people and their families who need long-term care services — especially those who cannot afford private care — is that the services are made available to them... And we need clear legislation to do that and integrate what we already have,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
Regarding the funding, the caucus said the government would first pay NT$9 billion (US$292.1 million) to establish the basic service network.
“The KMT’s proposal on the source of the long-term care services finance is to require an additional 20 percent of the existing National Health Insurance [NHI] premium, meaning that if you now pay NT$500 a month for the NHI, you would have to pay only NT$100 more,” Chiang said. “Those who earn more, pay more; it is based on the idea of a mutual aid network.”
The KMT caucus’ funding proposal comes in a separate bill — the draft long-term care insurance act — whose passage the caucus said does not have to be bound to that of the draft long-term care service act.
Academics and representatives of institutions and volunteer groups were invited by the KMT to the news conference and stressed the need for the legislation, but also added that the insurance bill should be passed as soon as possible, alongside the services bill.
However, the Universal Care Policy Alliance said the two bills should be complementary, adding that a long-term care services act without a sufficient and stable source of funding would make the services “out-of-service” and endorse the DPP’s proposal to raise sales, inheritance and gift taxes.
Alliance convener Liu Yu-hsiu (劉毓秀) called on the ruling party not to ram through the funding-less services bill.
While the proposed insurance bill stipulates that 36 percent of the premium should be paid by the government, which would be about NT$21.7 billion next year, “it is said that the government has hit a funding snag,” National Taipei University social work assistant professor Wang Pin (王品) said.
“And businesses are unwilling to shoulder the 60 percent that they are asked to pay for the workers,” Wang added.
The NT$9 billion long-term care development funding promised by the draft long-term care services act, without the insurance act, would be the only source of funds for the next five years, Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly director Lee Bih-tzy (李碧姿) said, adding that it would be absurd to rely on smokers’ surcharges on tobacco to establish the services.
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