Groups urge against NHI waiver for older people

• By Esme Yeh / Staff writer, with CNA

• • Add TT as Preferred Source

Taiwan’s medical community yesterday called on the government to avoid stoking protests against intergenerational injustice by waiving health insurance premiums for older people, citing France as a cautionary tale.

The opposition-dominated legislature last month passed the third reading of amendments to Article 22 of the Senior Citizens Welfare Act (老人福利法), which would waive the premiums for more than 80 percent of older people.

The Cabinet would by Friday announce whether it will countersign the bill.

The National Health Insurance logo is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times

The Taiwan Medical Association yesterday said the National Health Insurance (NHI) system is at a crossroads of intergenerational justice.

About 70 percent of NHI income is sustained by working people aged 15 to 64, most of whom are carrying a mortgage and rearing children, it said.

Using individual income tax rates to define NHI premium subsidy eligibility might shift the financial burden of older people — who have relatively more assets — onto younger generations, the association said.

The amendments stipulate that people aged 65 or older with an income that falls short of the tax filing threshold or an applicable tax rate under 20 percent can have their health insurance fully subsidized by the government.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare projected that 83 percent of older people would be eligible for full subsidies under the amended act.

The association said the subsidy budget is about NT$40 billion (US$1.22 billion) and could rise to NT$62.9 billion by 2049.

Social trust would break if subsidy expenditure highly falls on the shoulder of working generations, it said, adding that France is a cautionary tale.

“It was not responsible legislation,” the association said.

Changes were made to a social insurance fiscal policy that involves millions of people and a multiple budgets without a thorough actuarial analysis and public hearings, it said.

The Taiwan Primary Care Association yesterday said using 20 percent income tax rate as a subsidy threshold might not accurately reflect a person’s total assets or actual financial capabilities.

That might not precisely subsidize the real economically disadvantaged population, it said, calling for bipartisan cooperation on reviewing the bill.