Lawmakers on Thursday sent draft legal revisions seeking to waive a Barthel Index evaluation for people aged 80 and older as a prerequisite for hiring migrant domestic caregivers to a full session of the legislature for further deliberation.
The bills, sponsored by lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), were discussed during cross-caucus negotiations held by the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, but lawmakers could not reach a consensus.
The proposal to cancel the requirement to pass a Barthel Index evaluation for people aged 80 and older was first put forward by New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) last year when he was campaigning as the KMT’s presidential candidate.
President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, and Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate and Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) later made pledges to relax the rules on the Barthel Index evaluation and to allow more leniency in the assessment.
DPP Legislator Wang Cheng-hsu (王正旭) said that waiving the evaluation would crowd out severely ill people who are most in need of migrant domestic caregivers.
Wang, a physician, said severely ill people are difficult to care for and their families often struggle to keep domestic caregivers.
The proposed measure could incentivize some families that can take care of elderly people without the help of caregivers to encroach on the needs of those in desperate need of assistance, he said.
DPP Legislator Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴) said the proposed policy could negatively impact the long-term care system, undermining the government’s policy direction.
Referring to an expanded eligibility scheme for hiring migrant domestic caregivers that came into force in October last year, she said the policy eliminates the need to relax the rules.
The expanded eligibility scheme allowed families with members having dementia, breathing or swallowing difficulties, or those who have used long-term care for at least six months to hire live-in migrant caregivers.
It also broadened accessibility to the service for people with rare diseases, and mental or physical disabilities.
However, KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏), who cochairs the committee, said that recruiting domestic caregivers is a “supplemental” policy to the long-term care system, and the proposed measure would not have that great an impact on long-term care facilities.
KMT Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) said that the considerable cost of hiring a live-in caregiver means that only those with a genuine need would be prepared to pay for it.
Given the absence of a middle ground among lawmakers, Alicia Wang announced that the bills would be set aside for further deliberation at a full session of the legislature.
If passed, about 530,000 people would be eligible under the policy proposal, the Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS