The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday announced that the minimum threshold for imposing the National Health Insurance’s (NHI) supplementary premium on income from part-time jobs is to be raised from NT$5,000 (US$154) to NT$20,000, starting from Jan. 1 next year.
National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director-General Huang San-kuei (黃三桂) said the new policy would benefit an estimated 3.42 million people, allowing them to pay an average of NT$784 less per year, while 2.28 million people would not have to pay the supplementary premium at all.
It will reduce NHI revenue by an estimated NT$4.2 billion per year (about 0.7 percent of the total revenue) — about NT$2.68 billion from supplementary premium payments and about NT$1.52 billion from the government.
Photo: CNA
The policy change is the result of the NHI system having collected more than NT$208.5 billion in its reserve fund (as of August) — exceeding the one to three months of safety reserve mandated by law, mainly from the collection of a supplementary premium from non-salary income (dividends, rent, professional fees and interest income) implemented in 2013.
However, Huang said the NHIA estimates that after implementing the new policy, a deficit will occur by 2017, and the reserve fund would only have about 2.56 months of safety reserve by 2019.
“NHI income will not increase, but the costs are increasing each year,” he said, adding that expenditure is expected to increase as a result of the aging population, as well as the introduction of new medicine and medical technology.
In response to questions whether the premium rate of 4.91 percent would also be adjusted, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) said the rate would be adjusted according to economic conditions and reviewed each year, but so far the ministry does not plan to adjust the rate before 2017.
National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance spokesperson Eva Teng (滕西華) said the implementation of supplementary premium collection was problematic and unfair from the beginning, and that NHI payment should be collected according to total household income.
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