National health insurance watchdog groups lashed out yesterday against the government’s plan to raise insurance premium rates.
The plan was proposed by the Bureau of National Health Insurance on Friday, which is obligated to brief the Department of Health (DOH) every two years on the status of the national health insurance system and make suggestions accordingly.
Based on the proposal, the general premium rate will be raised from 4.55 percent to 5.18 percent per person, registering an increase in payment by 13.8 percent for the insured.
The bureau also warned if the proposal was not adopted, the accumulated deficits of the national health insurance system would top NT$20 billion this year.
The bureau also mentioned alternative solutions if the government rejects the first suggestion.
For one, the premium rate set for co-payment could be raised from 4.55 percent to 5.11 percent instead.
For medical expenses that cannot be paid through the national health insurance system, the bureau also proposed a NT$2,500 deductibles in which case the insured would have to pay themselves if their total medical expenses did not exceed NT$2,500 a year.
Should one’s annual medical expenses exceed that amount, the national health insurance would then pay the difference.
Meanwhile, medication prescribed through the outpatient service would be covered by patients themselves.
For government workers, teachers and administrative personnel in schools or working people in general, their monthly health insurance premium would increase from NT$437 to NT$497 per month.
Eva Teng (滕西華), general secretary of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, serves on the DOH’s supervisory committee of the national health insurance.
She said she cannot say if the rate was set accurately as it was calculated through a complicated actuarial formula that has taken multiple factors into account.
However, she said the premium rate was not the issue, and pointed to problems that have yet to be solved under the current system.
For example, she pointed to the system’s rules that allow wealthy people to pay only a little bit more than people with average incomes, but they get the degree of medical services that other people get.
“If we do not amend the National Health Insurance Law (全民健保法) and expand the base of the premium rate, then it does not matter if the rate is 6.18 or 7.18 percent. We will never get enough money to pay for it [the national health insurance],” she said.
She also said the bureau factored in the funding of research and development for large medical centers when it calculated the costs of the insurance system.
Those costs, she said, should be paid by the government, not by the people.
She further criticized about the cut-off line set for expenses not covered by the national health insurance, as it would give people the impression that the system only covers the treatment for major diseases.
Chu Hsieh-kuang (朱顯光), a specialist with the Taiwan Health Reform Foundation, said the insured have the right to know how hospitals and clinics handle the funding allotted to them by the health insurance bureau.
“The insured should have a say when they decide to reset the rate,” he said.
DOH minister Hou Sheng-mou (侯勝茂) has said in an interview with the China Times that he opposed the proposal, saying that it was unfair to the general public.
The same newspaper also quoted DOH minister designate Lin Fang-yue (林芳郁).
Lin said he would focus on spending each and every dollar paid by the insured more efficiently. He said he does not believe the system will work simply by pouring more money into it.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and