Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) on Thursday last week urged the government to clarify insurance regulations for private ambulance services after several companies were allegedly dropped from coverage in the past months.
A number of privately owned ambulance services have complained that insurers this year have refused to provide policies beyond the minimum compulsory insurance required by law, Lai told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The types of policies being denied included driver and passenger injury, vehicle damage and third-party insurance, she said, adding that uninsured companies are no longer able to legally provide services or protect medics and patients.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Fubon, Mega, Mingtai and Shin Kong were among the insurers that allegedly refused to offer the policies as of last month, she added.
These policies are crucial for service providers to comply with their contractual obligations with medical institutions, Taiwan Critical Care and Emergency Medical Transport Alliance chairman Chiang Shang-yu (姜尚佑) said.
There were never any difficulties for commercial ambulances to obtain the policies until this year, he said.
Insurers can make reasonable adjustments to rates in accordance with risks, but they cannot deny the policies that are necessary for commercial ambulances to function, said Lu Yu-han (柳育漢), spokesman for Taichung-based Yu Chi Ambulance.
Huang Feng-ju (黃鳳茹), senior executive officer at the Financial Supervisory Commission’s Insurance Bureau, urged insurance companies to offer the policies after making necessary changes to rates and limits.
Damage to vehicles and passenger injury insurance are subsets of commercial insurance, which insurers are making adjustments to in response to inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising costs in the reinsurance market, Huang said.
Non-life Insurance Association of the Republic of China auto insurance committee convener Sun Teng-min (孫騰敏) said that insurers need the government to clarify ambiguities in the regulations.
Regulators should tell insurers whether patients fall within the definition of passengers, if vehicular damage includes the medical equipment being transported and specify the regulations governing liability for collisions, Sun said.
Recalculation of rates cannot be done until such concerns are addressed, he said.
The association would offer the requested policies, but the industry must have time to assess the risks before premiums can be adjusted, committee deputy convener Huang Shih-kuan (黃式寬) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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