The legislature yesterday passed a draft bill on long-term care services, clearing the way for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposals over the funding of long-term care to be written into law.
After eight cross-caucus negotiation sessions and a multitude of debates involving the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and civic groups, the bill finally passed after a controversial clause on the source of funding for the care services was put to a floor vote — considered a last resort for the passage of a bill.
The KMT-authored bill stipulates that funding should come from public coffers, health surcharges on tobacco, donations, interest from the fund and other sources, while the DPP called for an increase of inheritance and gift taxes.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“The legislation is progressive as it guarantees universal, plural and affordable services and the dignity and rights of both care-receivers and caregivers. Discrimination, whether it is based on gender, sexual orientation, class, race or religion, has also been clearly prohibited,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said. “However, it is regrettable that this progressive act lacks the funding to be extensively and substantively enforced. The clause on funding voted for by the KMT caucus allows for NT$12 billion (US$392 million) in government funding over five years, which is only NT$2.4 billion per year. How plural, universal and affordable could these services be?”
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) criticized the passage of the bill, saying that without proper funding the legislation would be “a continuation of what used to be called the ‘residual welfare model.’”
“It shows that the government does not want to establish a public and universal system of care services, but instead, with the long-term care service insurance act soon to be passed, give out financial subsidies to those needing services, which would surely commercialize and stratify the system, with most people denied high-quality and affordable services,” Lin said.
The KMT viewed the passage more positively.
“There are close to about 800,000 disabled people [who need these services] in the nation, which means that the passage would benefit more than 2 million people, [including those who need the services and their families],” Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) said.
The legislation provides a legal framework for the integration of various types of long-term care services.
Personnel management and training; management of institutions; protection of the rights of the care-receivers and encouraging and rewarding measures for the development of services, are the four major pillars of the act and will enhance the quality of the nations long-term care services, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
The act also allows for employed, personal and family caregivers to be systematically incorporated into the long-term care systen framework, with the former group, including migrant caregivers, provided with training and the latter with respite care services, she said.
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