The Legislative Yuan passed on third reading on the 16th an amendment to the Senior Citizens Welfare Act. Under it, the government subsidizes the National Health Insurance premiums of people 65 and over whose individual income tax rate is below 20%. The Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party pushed it together and sent it to a vote after cross-party negotiations broke down. The Democratic Progressive Party caucus questions the lack of any account of NT$38.8 billion in funding.
It touches National Health Insurance finances and fairness between generations, and is also a major issue in the year-end elections.
If you or a family member is 65 or older, the way you pay may change; the effect on everyone else's burden awaits an official estimate.
Where free coverage ends, and where the money comes from, will decide whether this benefit can last.
Liberty Times, CNA and others, 5 outlets (sampled)
Waiver of National Health Insurance premiums for people 65 and over passes third reading; funding is the biggest dispute
The Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party joined forces to amend the Senior Citizens Welfare Act so that the government subsidizes the full health insurance premiums of older people whose individual income tax rate is below 20%; Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers question the lack of any account of the funding.
On the 16th the Legislative Yuan passed on third reading an amendment to the Senior Citizens Welfare Act. At its core: for people aged 65 and over whose individual income tax rate is below 20%, the government subsidizes their National Health Insurance premiums, and they no longer have to pay them themselves. The amendment was pushed jointly by Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party lawmakers, and went to a vote after cross-party negotiations broke down.
Opposition centers on where the money will come from. The Democratic Progressive Party caucus said the amendment gives no account of the funding and pointed to a gap of NT$38.8 billion; the figure comes from the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, and this issue found no independent official estimate from any other source, so readers should treat it as one side's claim. Another outlet's headline said the measure could make each person pay about NT$3,000 more a year; this is a report's estimate and headline wording, likewise with no official figure behind it, and the details remain to be clarified.
The Minister of Health and Welfare has also responded publicly, but the material obtained for this issue is only a headline, so the argument cannot be fully relayed. Another former vice minister of health and welfare, Wang Pi-sheng, said on the 16th that he had heard young people say they “no longer want to pay health insurance premiums either,” and called this the beginning of the system's collapse. This is a personal observation and commentary, not survey data, but it points to the most sensitive spot in the system's design: health insurance runs on mutual aid, and once the boundary of what is free is widened, will people's willingness to pay waver as well?
Several things to watch next: whether the Executive Yuan seeks reconsideration or earmarks a separate budget; whether the subsidy is paid from the central budget or absorbed by the National Health Insurance fund; and whether a follow-up amendment or a petition for a constitutional interpretation emerges. With the year-end local elections close at hand, both parties have put this “welfare card” into the campaign context, and the attacks and counterattacks are expected to continue.
By the numbers
Word of the day
Third readingLEGISLATIONThe final stage of a bill's passage in the Legislative Yuan, after three rounds of deliberation; once passed, it is sent to the president for promulgation.