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Updated Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:32 am TWN, The China Post news staff



	Premier Wu Den-yih, left, and Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang announce the latest health insurance premium rate with government subsidies for people with lower incomes. Yaung, who had tendered his resignation earlier, confirmed yesterday that he has decided to stay on his job to continue pushing for new reforms for the NHI program. (CNA) Enlarge Photo

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NHI premium raised

Mixed Reactions

The latest government plan to raise the NHI premium rate still drew mixed reactions from legislators as well as some civil watchdog groups.

Lawmaker Lin Hung-chih, a whip of the ruling Kuomintang's legislative caucus, said that the caucus supports the rate-hike plan because it will leave more than three-quarters percent of the people unaffected.

Another advantage is the measure will not require time-consuming process to make amendments to any laws or regulations, but can immediately stabilize the finances of the system, he said.

Lin added that KMT lawmakers support the second-generation health insurance plan.

He said new reforms should be introduced to fully conform to the principles of justice and fairness for all people with premiums based on total household incomes, and assure sustainable operations of the system.

Lawmaker Lee Chun-yi, legislative caucus whip of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), expressed concern that the plan adopted yesterday would still add to the financial burden on taxpayers because they have to cover government subsidization of premium hikes for lower income individuals.

Chen Ting-fei, another DPP legislator, said the DOH and the BNHI should first address the waste and abuse of medical resources by hospitals and recover premiums owed by local administrations like Taipei and Kaohsiung cities before raising health insurance premiums.

Teng Hsi-hua, a spokesman for a civic watchdog monitoring the operations of the NHI system, pointed out that the DOH had previously raised the income ceiling on which premiums are calculated five times, including a hike from NT$53,000 to NT$54,000 in 1998 and from NT$87,6000 to NT$131,700 in 2005.

He aid the BNHI previously estimated that by the end of 2010, the system's accumulative deficit would total more than NT$100 billion.

The amount could reach between NT$160 billion and NT$180 billion after a huge cash shortfall caused by premium obligations owed by Taipei and Kaohsiung cities is added.

The successive rate hikes have proven ineffective in improving the financial viability of the NHI program, Teng and other analysts said.

They said the new generation of NHI program should be implemented in 2011 for a long-term solution to the NHI's financial woes instead of a procrastination of two more years as planned by the government.

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Comments

March 18, 2010 ludahai_twn@

Isn't this the same KMT that opposed a rate-hike when President Chen was in the Presidential Office?

Seriously, I have yet to hear a good argument yet why income alone should be the determinant of the health insurance premium. I have a healthy lifestyle... healthier than 99 percent of residents of this country, but because of my higher income, I will have to pay more for health coverage. That isn't right. Risk factors should be part of the equation as well.