Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) on Thursday last week urged the government to clarify insurance regulations for private ambulance services after several companies were allegedly dropped from coverage in the past months.
A number of privately owned ambulance services have complained that insurers this year have refused to provide policies beyond the minimum compulsory insurance required by law, Lai told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The types of policies being denied included driver and passenger injury, vehicle damage and third-party insurance, she said, adding that uninsured companies are no longer able to legally provide services or protect medics and patients.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Fubon, Mega, Mingtai and Shin Kong were among the insurers that allegedly refused to offer the policies as of last month, she added.
These policies are crucial for service providers to comply with their contractual obligations with medical institutions, Taiwan Critical Care and Emergency Medical Transport Alliance chairman Chiang Shang-yu (姜尚佑) said.
There were never any difficulties for commercial ambulances to obtain the policies until this year, he said.
Insurers can make reasonable adjustments to rates in accordance with risks, but they cannot deny the policies that are necessary for commercial ambulances to function, said Lu Yu-han (柳育漢), spokesman for Taichung-based Yu Chi Ambulance.
Huang Feng-ju (黃鳳茹), senior executive officer at the Financial Supervisory Commission’s Insurance Bureau, urged insurance companies to offer the policies after making necessary changes to rates and limits.
Damage to vehicles and passenger injury insurance are subsets of commercial insurance, which insurers are making adjustments to in response to inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising costs in the reinsurance market, Huang said.
Non-life Insurance Association of the Republic of China auto insurance committee convener Sun Teng-min (孫騰敏) said that insurers need the government to clarify ambiguities in the regulations.
Regulators should tell insurers whether patients fall within the definition of passengers, if vehicular damage includes the medical equipment being transported and specify the regulations governing liability for collisions, Sun said.
Recalculation of rates cannot be done until such concerns are addressed, he said.
The association would offer the requested policies, but the industry must have time to assess the risks before premiums can be adjusted, committee deputy convener Huang Shih-kuan (黃式寬) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS