The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday made three demands for healthcare, asking the government apologize to the people, to revise “unfair” clauses in the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) and for premium calculations to be based on total household income.
“The initial design of the premium calculation was based on household income, before several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators overturned the mechanism overnight,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.
“Even former Department of Health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) admitted in a press conference the other day that he disagreed with the legislation passed last year,” Pan said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“The DPP caucus does not rule out a proposal to amend the law again,” he said.
The controversial supplementary premium was added to the legislation simply for the purposes of increasing the premium base, but the unfairness of the premium calculation is obvious, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said.
“Five types of income have been picked to be charged with the supplementary premium, but capital gains and overseas income were not included,” she said.
Under the current calculation, blue-collar workers would have to pay a bigger supplementary premium than doctors and lawyers, Wu said, adding that bonuses of more than NT$2,000 would be charged, but not non-cash awards worth the same amount.
“Those who are familiar with accounting and the premium calculation would be able to evade the supplementary premium. At the same time, ordinary people and the underprivileged would not be able to do anything about it,” she said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Chih-chang (蔡其昌) described the second-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) program as a “patchwork program” with a lack of “overall planning.”
Yaung acknowledged that he was forced into accepting the previous amendment and the Department of Health is reportedly taking steps to formulate a third-generation NHI program based on household income, DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said.
“If that is the case, the department might as well abandon the controversial second-generation program and work on a fairer system,” Hsu said.
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