The day before yesterday, the Blue and White parties took the lead in passing the amendment to Article 22 of the Elderly Welfare Law at the Legislative Yuan, which clearly stipulates that the health insurance premiums for those over 65 years old whose comprehensive income tax rate does not reach 20% will be subsidized by the central government. Lai Zhongqiang, convener of the Taiwan United Economic Democracy think tank, pointed out today that Blue and White got into trouble, and the evil cult confiscated subsidies for vulnerable elderly people. In response to this, the Kuomintang group responded tonight that the green camp flankers maliciously smeared that the amendment of the law will "remove medical subsidies for vulnerable elders", and strictly condemned and fully supported the objective fact clarification of the popular party group; the opposition camp promoted the amendment of the law to upgrade care for the elderly, and will never allow a few unscrupulous politicians to create panic through political manipulation.
Lai Zhongqiang said that in order to save the election, Blue and White rushed to amend the law. As a result, the original provision subsidized the medical expenses of the elderly in three items. After the amendment, the law was deleted to only one item, "Insurance premium of the National Health Insurance". The legal source of subsidy for the elderly who are unable to afford "partial burden of health insurance" and "medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits" has been deleted.
Lai Zhongqiang said that Blue and White shifted the responsibility for the "full burden" of the elderly health premium subsidy to the central government, which counties and cities had to evaluate whether to implement based on their own financial conditions, and then used "national expansion of implementation" to save the unfavorable election situation. The result was to delete the subsidy for "partial burden of health insurance" and "medical expenses not covered by health insurance benefits" for low-income elderly and low- and middle-income elderly. This is not an amendment to the Elderly Welfare Law at all, but the fourth revision of the fiscal revenue and expenditure division law.
In this regard, the Kuomintang League stated that the so-called "subsidy cut off" by green camp politicians is completely alarmist. The vulnerable elders' partial burden of medical treatment and out-of-pocket medical expenses have long been protected by the Social Assistance Law, the National Health Insurance Law and various local government medical subsidy measures. All counties and cities have prepared and implemented budgets on a regular basis, and the legal source is independent and stable.
The Kuomintang League pointed out that this revision of the law aims to end the chaos of "one country, multiple systems" in the national elderly health insurance premiums, and instead subsidize them uniformly from the central government. This not only allows the elders to be treated fairly, but also saves local governments more than 21 billion yuan. After local fiscal relief, there are more abundant resources to expand care for the disadvantaged, and medical subsidies "will only be more, not less."
The Kuomintang League calls on interested people to stop spreading rumors and not maliciously misinterpret laws and create social unrest just to increase their presence. This kind of smear attack on the amendment of the law should stop in moderation. We will continue to fight side by side with the opposition forces, urge the administrative departments to implement the revised law and promulgate it as soon as possible, and firmly protect the health and dignity of Taiwan's elders.
