Eight major medical organizations yesterday called on the government to re-evaluate the National Health Insurance (NHI) point value system to prevent talent loss in response to attempts by China’s Fujian Province to poach Taiwanese nurses.
At the end of last month, Fujian Province announced that it would offer 240 positions annually over the next five years to attract Taiwanese nursing staff through incentives based on educational and professional experience.
Boosting the NHI point values would increase salaries, improve the sector’s competitiveness and provide the public with better-quality healthcare, the groups said in a statement.
Photo: Taipei Times
China is offering high salaries and other benefits to Taiwanese nurses, the statement said, adding that the outflow of nursing staff from Taiwan would become more severe.
Since last year, the healthcare sector has communicated its concerns to the government, urging it to increase healthcare investments and to improve the resilience of medical institution management, it said.
It has also called for reform of the NHI point values from an “expenditure cap” system to an “expenditure target” system, with the goal of ensuring a point value of NT$0.95 in the short term and NT$1.1 in the long term.
In the event that point values fall short, government funds could cover the gap and help the sector meet funding needs, the groups said, adding that if such a change occurred, salary increases would have to be prioritized to address the nursing shortage.
High demand for urgent, critical and rare disease treatment in Taipei has driven down NHI point values, adding to the industry’s list of issues, which include delays in approving new medications, low wages and reluctance of medical students to specialize in high-risk or emergency medicine, the statement said.
Hospitals are under public pressure to demonstrate that they are not hoarding funds, it said.
A survey of its members by the Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinics Association showed that 100 percent of hospitals increased salaries last year or this year, with 80 percent of private hospitals providing raises larger than the 4 percent salary increase public servants received, the groups said.
President William Lai (賴清德) should keep his promise to increase NHI point values and guarantee minimum values, with the goal of moving toward the NT0.95 target by the third quarter of next year, they said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS