Blue and White jointly pushed the "Draft Amendment to Article 22 of the Elderly Welfare Law" in the Legislative Yuan, claiming to promote the exemption of health insurance premiums for the elderly. However, in the original article, important legal sources such as local governments should subsidize "partial expenses" and "medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits" for the elderly who cannot afford medical expenses were deleted. DPP spokesperson Lin Chuyin denounced that the blue and white parties were solely trying to save the election and engaged in "policy buying" without financial discipline. The result was not only "repairing evil but also fixing mistakes" and the methods were extremely crude.
Lin Chuyin said that the most vulnerable elderly people who need the most care are the first to bear the brunt of this law revision. It may cause non-health insurance medical subsidies such as dentures, cataract intraocular lenses, and cardiovascular stents to lose their legal basis. Faced with the dilemma of being unable to prepare a budget, the Ministry of Health and Welfare initially estimates that the medical subsidy rights of at least 130,000 disadvantaged elderly people will be affected.
Lin Chuyin mentioned that the blue and white version of the wealth exclusion threshold is too loose, and up to 83% of the elderly are eligible for subsidies. If this leads to an expansion of the financial gap in health insurance and an increase in premiums in the future, the younger generation may have to bear an additional burden of nearly 3,000 yuan per person per year. This is simply putting the cart before the horse.
Lin Chuyin denounced that this is not the first time that the blue and white legislators of the current Legislative Yuan have rushed to amend the law and issued packages one after another. The previous "Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure Division Law" was pushed forward. However, due to the inconsistent calculation basis of the numerator and denominator of the distribution formula, the overall distribution tax of up to 34.5 billion yuan could not be distributed smoothly. Subsequently, it caused controversy over repeated law revisions.
Lin Chuyin said that in order to boycott the ruling party, Blue and White forced the "NCC Organic Law Amendment" in an attempt to force Ong Baizhong to step down, but did not simultaneously amend the provisions of Article 16 regarding the implementation date, resulting in the amendment not taking effect immediately. At that time, Ong Baizong was still extended in accordance with the law and acted as chairman, which made the political calculation of the opposition party fail on the spot.
Lin Chuyin criticized that from the Financial Planning Law, the NCC Organic Law to the current Old Welfare Law, the laws have been hastily revised one after another and are full of loopholes, raising big question marks in the legislative profession. The Kuomintang also plans to continue to promote the "health premium exemption for children under 6 years old", further increasing the financial burden on the central government. These seemingly generous "free policies" do not include a complete financial resource plan. I am afraid that the final financial pressure will be borne by the "sandwich generation" who are paying premiums and taxes.
Lin Chuyin emphasized that under the dual challenges of low birthrate and aging population, the government should allocate limited resources prudently, give priority to vulnerable groups in real need, and continue to invest in child care, kindergartens and other child care support measures. However, for the sake of electoral gain, Blue and White not only put the original medical subsidies for disadvantaged elders into crisis, but are also likely to pass on the financial burden to the younger generation. We call on the opposition parties to stop buying votes based on irresponsible policies, return to professional and rational legislation, and not write checks for the sake of electoral success, only to have vulnerable elders and younger generations foot the bill together.
