Recently passed amendments to the fiscal planning law would cause public health and social welfare funds to shrink, including childcare subsidies and funding for cancer screenings and medication, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said today.
Opposition parties collectively pushed amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) through the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week.
The new legislation would take effect three days after President William Lai (賴清德) announces it, Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said yesterday.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Next year’s overall government budget would be seriously affected by the amendments and may need to be reallocated, she said.
The central government needs to allocate NT$375.3 billion (US$11.47 billion) to local governments, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
As a result, funding for the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of National Defense may be reduced by 28 percent, it said.
The new legislation would affect the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s efforts to strengthen cancer prevention and expand publicly funded cancer screenings, the minister said in an interview prior to a press conference about expanding cancer screenings next year.
It would also affect funding for cancer treatments, research and drugs, he said.
Efforts aimed at countering the declining birth rate including childcare subsidies for children aged zero to two, various childcare services and subsidies for assisted reproduction treatments would all be impacted, Chiu said.
Funding for the social safety net, which has been progressively expanding, would also be impacted, he said.
Health, welfare and healthcare policies have nationwide significance and cannot be determined solely based on local preferences, Chiu said.
“We place great emphasis on overall inclusiveness, ensuring that all residents in Taiwan can have equal access to healthcare regardless of which county or city they live in,” the minister said.
This requires the central government to have sufficient resources to improve health care, social welfare and medical services, and create better working conditions for medical and healthcare professionals, he said.
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