The National Health Insurance (NHI) Supervisory Committee will evaluate an amendment today that could increase health insurance contributions for individuals earning non-monthly income.
In December, Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said the department was mulling an amendment to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) called the “1.5 Generation NHI Act,” which would make the central government responsible for paying the NHI subsidy rather than local governments, as the law currently states.
Yeh said the department was also mulling a change to health insurance laws that would include non-monthly income in the calculation of insurance contributions.
As defined by the Ministry of Finance, non-monthly income — meaning income obtained from sources other than monthly salary from an employer — would include income sources such as year-end bonuses, stocks, dividends, interest and rent.
By including non-monthly income in the calculation for insurance contributions, the department hopes to plug the NT$14.4 billion (US$450 million) deficit the fund has incurred in unrealized losses.
The department is also exploring the possibility of requiring a second health insurance payment from individuals earning more than NT$180,000 in non-monthly income, an act that, if passed, would affect about 2 million people.
The Alliance for Surveillance of the National Health Insurance, a civic group that oversees the NHI fund and regulations, criticized the plan for exploiting the working class and forcing them to shell out more money to fix the fund’s financial gap.
“For individuals whose only source of income is their monthly salary, the plan would not affect them,” alliance spokesperson Eva Teng (滕西華) said. “But for those with non-monthly income, we need to make the plan transparent so they can better understand their rights and benefits,” she said.
Teng disagreed with Yeh, who in earlier comments had said that because of the economic downturn, now was not a good time to raise NHI premiums rates.
She said that although premium rates would remain the same, some people would have to make additional health insurance contributions if part of their income fell into the non-monthly income category.
The alliance also said that the rationale behind the amendment may be to relieve the Taipei City Government of its massive debt.
Bureau of NHI statistics showed that subsidy debts owed by local governments total NT$53.9 billion, with Taipei City Government alone owing NT$29.1 billion, taking up more than half of the total debt.
By making the central government responsible for paying the health insurance subsidy, the alliance said, the “Taipei City clause” aims to write off the local government’s debt.
The alliance said it would urge the NHI Fund Supervisory Committee to demand that the Taipei City Government pay off its subsidy debts to demonstrate its responsibility to the public.
Past lawsuits resulted in a Supreme Administrative Court ruling against Taipei City Government last year. It was told to pay off the debt that had accrued between 1999 and 2002.
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