On the 16th, Blue and White passed the 22nd amendment to the "Elderly Welfare Law" in a tough third reading, exempting seniors over 65 from paying health insurance premiums. People's Party Chairman Huang Guochang said that the shortfall in health insurance revenue after the new law comes into effect will be borne by the central government. As soon as the news came out, it triggered a strong backlash from all walks of life. In this regard, lawyer Lai Zhongqiang revealed today (18th) that in order to pass this amendment, the Blue and White legislators actually chose to sacrifice three legal sources of medical subsidy for Taiwan's poor elderly, denouncing "Blue and White as inhumane."
Lai Zhongqiang bluntly stated in an article at noon today that the Blue and White's tough passage of the "Old Welfare Law" on the third reading would "cause a big disaster" because the "Old Welfare Law" actually deleted part of the health insurance subsidy and non-health insurance medical subsidies for "low- and middle-income seniors". He denounced the Blue and White as being unkind and treating low- and middle-income seniors as stupid dogs. According to the Ministry of Education's "Revised Mandarin Dictionary", "卍狗" in ancient times refers to a dog-shaped dog made of straw, used for sacrifices, and discarded after use; later it was used as a metaphor for a despised and useless thing.
Lai Zhongqiang also attached two photos to his post. The first one is that the Legislative Yuan passed Article 22 of the "Old Welfare Law" on the third reading on the 16th. It was passed based on the amendment motion jointly submitted by the Blue and White caucus. After taking a closer look, he thought he had mistakenly read the article that was passed on the third reading, so he changed the Legislative Yuan 16 early this morning. I re-listened to the IVOD video recording of the meeting twice and confirmed that Article 22 of the revised "Elderly Welfare Law" only stipulates that for the elderly or their legal support obligors who meet the income conditions, the central competent authority will fully subsidize the insurance premiums for the elderly to participate in the national health insurance.
Lai Zhongqiang pointed out that in order to save the election, Blue and White rushed to amend the law without any reason and inexplicably deleted the legal source of subsidies for the elderly who were unable to afford "partial burden of health insurance" and "medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits", leaving only the "insurance premium of the National Health Insurance" item. According to Article 22 of the "Elderly Welfare Law" before the amendment, when the elderly or their legal support obligors are unable to afford "the insurance premiums of the National Health Insurance, partial payment of expenses, or medical expenses not covered by insurance benefits", the municipal and county (city) competent authorities should provide subsidies.
Lai Zhongqiang further analyzed that although Article 27, Paragraph 5 of the National Health Insurance Law also includes subsidy provisions for low-income households to partially bear the burden of health insurance, this amendment to the law still makes three subsidies lose their legal origin, namely "medical expenses not covered by the low-income elderly's health insurance benefits", "partial burden of the low- and middle-income elderly's health insurance", and "medical expenses not covered by the low- and middle-income elderly's health insurance benefits", which also include medical expenses such as dentures.
Lai Zhongqiang criticized that Blue and White changed the old-age health care premium subsidies that were originally implemented by counties and cities based on their financial status to be fully borne by the central government, and then used expanded implementation as propaganda in an attempt to save the election that was "unfavorable to Blue and White." However, in the end, the original legal source of medical subsidies for disadvantaged elders was deleted. "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." Not only that, more than a year ago, the advancement of the amendment to the "Old Welfare Law" was suspended due to backlash from all walks of life. The article-by-article discussion that originally entered the second reading was changed to a resolution and consultation before handling. Unexpectedly, Blue and White would come back without warning and suddenly amend the law. This act caused seven major medical groups in Taiwan to jointly issue a statement condemning it.
Citing media reports, Lai Zhongqiang pointed out that the amendment was ordered by Huang Guochang to launch a surprise attack. On the 15th, eight legislators from the Legislative Yuan caucus of the People’s Party set up tents in front of the Legislative Yuan chamber and lined up in shifts all night long. The legislators were led by Huang Guochang to live broadcast, followed by Fu Kunqi, Xu Yuzhen, Chen Qinglong, and Hong Yuxiang. When signing the motion for re-amendment, Legislative Yuan Han Guo-yu presided over the negotiation without prior notice. The official website of the Legislative Yuan even only marked "Bill Negotiation" without clearly listing the name of the "Old Welfare Law." The original text and the content of the revised draft were not fully clarified on site, and the motion for re-amendment was directly read out and voted on.
Lai Zhongqiang also mentioned that the People's Party was worried that the Democratic Progressive Party would propose a review before the end of the next parliamentary session. After the third reading of the 22nd amendment to the "Old Welfare Act" was passed, Chen Qinglong, the general convenor of the People's Party, immediately proposed a review on his own and then vetoed the review on his own. This prevented the Democratic Progressive Party from proposing a review before the end of the next parliamentary session, blocked the debugging mechanism within the democratic system, and completely violated the "principles of openness, transparency" and "principles of discussion" that Taiwan's parliament should abide by when reviewing bills.
Lai Zhongqiang denounced, "Heaven and Earth are unkind, treating all things as stupid dogs; Blue and White are unkind, treating low- and middle-income elderly people as stupid dogs." Blue and White shifted the burden of the elderly health insurance subsidy to the central government to "fully bear" the responsibility for the elderly health insurance premiums that counties and cities originally assessed based on their financial conditions based on their financial situation. He bluntly stated that low-income and low-income and low-income people nationwide Why should the elderly suffer the consequences of being deprived of medical subsidies? We call on all people to speak out and demand that Huang Guochang, Fu Kunqi, Xu Yuzhen, Chen Qinglong, and Hong Yuxiang resign from their posts. Hanguo Yu must apologize and publicly declare that he will abide by the "openness and transparency principle" and "discussion principle" of congressional deliberations in the future.
