Civic groups have expressed their opposition to draft legislation pertaining to long-term care insurance and services over concern that using an insurance system to cover long-term care expenses would not be financially viable.
Sun Yu-lien (孫友聯) of the Taiwan Labor Front said he believed that the best solution would be for the government to provide long-term care services for the disabled, financed by income tax revenue.
Sun said that the proposed long-term care insurance system, on the other hand, would subject the nation to a very heavy financial burden, similar to the deficit-ridden national health insurance system.
CAMPAIGN PROMISE
Promoting long-term care insurance and services was one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign promises during the presidential election in 2008, while the Department of Health was tasked with drafting legislation on the issue.
According to the health deparment, last year it delivered two draft bills related to long-term care insurance and services to the Executive Yuan for approval.
The insurance bill was later sent back to the department while heated debates took place about proposals to introduce a second-generation national health insurance reform plan to deal with the insurance system’s financial woes.
The bill was returned because the Cabinet wanted the new long-term care plan to be coordinated with the second-generation national health insurance system, health department adviser Chu Tong-kuang (曲同光) said.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
According to a department study last year on the need for long-term care services nationwide, 64 percent of respondents said they supported a new insurance plan to cover long-term care expenses.
The report also estimated that if such an insurance plan were carried out this year, it would require between NT$47.7 billion (US$1.64 billion) and NT$102.4 billion, depending on different scenarios, to be fully financed.
COSTS TO RISE
In addition, the health department study said the costs of the program would only increase as the nation’s society continues to age.
The department estimated that 3.3 percent of Taiwanese above the age of five — 600,000 to 700,000 people — were disabled, could not live on their own and required long-term care.
However, the government still had not been able to decide who should pay for the long-term care insurance system if it were to come into being.
Internationally, only the Netherlands, Germany, Japan and South Korea currently provide long-term care services through an insurance system.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS