Blue and White raid to repair the evil "Old Fu Fa" Department of Social Welfare and Social Welfare: The degree of impact "depends on the locality"

The Blue and White Legislators recently forcibly passed the 22nd Amendment to the "Elderly Welfare Act", which aroused doubts from the outside world. Lawyers also found that two important legal sources of subsidies for vulnerable elderly people were deleted. Zhou Daojun, Director of the Social Welfare Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that part of the burden of low-income elders will basically not be affected, but part of the burden of middle- and low-income elders, and expenses other than health insurance benefits for low- and middle-income elders, will lose the legal source of requiring continued local subsidies in this amendment. The degree of impact will depend on "whether local governments continue to provide subsidies."

The current Elderly Welfare Law stipulates that local governments should provide three types of subsidies for disadvantaged elders: health insurance premiums, part-pay expenses, and expenses other than health insurance benefits, and authorize the competent authority to formulate subsidy regulations, namely the "Measures for Subsidy for Elderly Persons Who Cannot Afford to Participate in National Health Insurance."

Lai Zhongqiang, the convener of the Taiwan Economic Democracy Think Tank, angrily criticized the Blue and White legislators for the revision of the "Old Welfare Law". In addition to adding the content that seniors over 65 years old are exempt from paying health insurance premiums, they also deleted the source of the law that requires local governments to provide vulnerable elders with partial payment of expenses and subsidies for expenses other than health insurance benefits. He also criticized this revision of the law as not an amendment to the "Old Welfare Law", but the fourth bad revision of the "Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure Division Act".

Zhou Daojun pointed out that according to the calculation of applicable objects according to Article 22 of the "Old Welfare Law", by the end of 2025, there will be 55,710 low-income households over 65 years old, and 84,234 people over 65 years old in low- and middle-income households. This amendment to Article 22 of the "Old Welfare Law" has indeed deleted the requirement for local governments to provide part of the burden for vulnerable elders and expenses other than health insurance benefits.

Regarding the impact of this revision of the law, Zhou Daojun explained that for the "partial burden" of "low-income elders", in addition to the "Old Welfare Law", the "Social Assistance Law" also has subsidy regulations. Part of the burden has always been subsidized by the government. The Department of Social Assistance and Social Work prepares relevant budgets accordingly every year, so the impact of this revision of the law is relatively small.

However, regarding the "partial burden" of "low- and middle-income elders" and the "expenses other than health insurance benefits" for "elderly residents regardless of low-income households", Zhou Daojun said that the above-mentioned expenses have always been subsidized by local governments based on their own financial conditions. Now the legal source that requires local governments to provide subsidies has disappeared. Whether local governments will continue to pay these subsidy fees in the future can only "depend on the local government's decision."