A few days ago, Blue and White legislators passed an amendment to the "Elderly Welfare Act" through a "surprise revision". Elders over 65 years old who meet certain conditions are exempted from paying health insurance premiums, which aroused doubts from the outside world. Some lawyers pointed out that this hasty revision of the law actually deleted two important sources of health insurance-related subsidies that local governments should provide to disadvantaged elders. Lin Jingyi, deputy minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, bluntly said that the surprise revision of the law lacked communication with administrative units, which may result in problems being discovered only after the third reading.
Article 22 of the current "Elderly Welfare Law" stipulates, "If the elderly or their legal support obligors are unable to afford the insurance premiums, partial expenses or medical expenses not covered by insurance benefits for the elderly's participation in the national health insurance, the municipal, county (city) competent authorities shall provide subsidies."
However, Lai Zhongqiang, the convener of Taiwan Economic Democracy Think Tank, issued an article today stating that Article 22 of the "Elderly Welfare Act" passed by the Legislative Yuan on the third reading on the 16th directly deleted all the words below "partial payment of expenses or medical expenses not covered by insurance benefits", and instead stipulated the conditions for the elderly to be exempted from paying health insurance premiums, and explicitly required full subsidies from the central competent authority.
Lai Zhongqiang said that the original provision of subsidy for elderly health insurance-related expenses included "insurance premiums", "partially borne expenses" and "medical expenses not covered by insurance benefits". After the overhaul, the scope of subsidy was reduced to "insurance premiums", and the legal source of subsidy for partial burdens and medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits disappeared directly, without even giving a reason.
Therefore, Lai Zhongqiang angrily criticized that each county and city could have independently evaluated whether to implement elderly health insurance premium subsidies based on their financial situation, but now the law has been revised to blame the central government for "full burden", and also deleted the "partial burden of health insurance" and "medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits" subsidies. "This is not an amendment to the Elderly Welfare Law at all, but the fourth evil revision of the fiscal revenue and expenditure division law!"
Lin Jingyi said that major bills should be fully discussed with the competent authorities in the major committees of the Legislative Yuan, and details such as the scope of impact, confirmation of financial resources, and implementation methods should be assessed before being sent out. This is an effort to amend the law in a timely manner, and the "committee-centrism" has been repeatedly emphasized. If the law is revised in a surprise manner, there will be a lack of communication with the administrative units in advance, and problems may not be discovered until the third reading of the vote.
In addition, Lin Jingyi emphasized that the purpose of the social welfare system is to shorten the gap and reduce the disadvantaged situation of the disadvantaged. If it is not fully evaluated, it may widen the gap and aggravate the disadvantaged situation of the disadvantaged.
