The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Insurance Act (保險法) that aims to prevent the courts from seizing the life insurance policies of people in debt.
The amendment says that if the payout for the life insurance policy or other eligible policies of the insured person is less than 1.2 times the minimum monthly living wage for three consecutive months, the insurance policy should not be seized or terminated.
Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Huo-yen (蔡火炎) said that would amount to NT$73,365 in Taipei, NT$60,840 in New Taipei City, NT$60,366 in Taoyuan, NT$57,744 in Kaohsiung, NT$55,854 in Tainan, NT$57,876 in Taichung, NT$51,627 in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, and NT$55,854 for all other cities and counties.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The government ordered the termination of 928,000 insurance policies from January 2023 to September last year, Tsai said.
The increase in the number of insurance policies being terminated originated from a Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that cited a precedent in 2019, during which the courts’ authority to order insurance companies to end life insurance policies of people in debt was affirmed, he said.
Thirty percent were life insurance policies, while 70 percent were casualty insurance or health insurance, Tsai said.
The Supreme Court ruling was for life insurance policies, but other insurance policies, including health policies and policies with a low termination payout, were also included, he said.
While the termination of insurance policies helped repay debts, it also meant that the indebted no longer had additional medical insurance, Tsai said.
The termination of insurance policies to repay outstanding debts also took up a lot of time and personnel, he said.
About 46,000 policies have been terminated, significantly infringing the guarantees the affected people have built for themselves, he said.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS