Taipei Academics Support Health Insurance Premiums Based on Household Incomes for NHI Plan

Taipei academics argued that the government should scrap the supplementary premiums mechanism on health insurance and charge premiums based on household incomes.

Civic groups and academics in Taipei said on Sunday, that the government should scrap the supplementary premiums mechanism on health insurance and charge a premium based on household incomes.

This was suggested in case the government wanted to make the second-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) program fair in all respects, reported taipeitimes.com.

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Former health minister Yaung Chih-liang told a press conference that regulations on premium calculations should be revised so that premium fees are proportional to incomes.

Implementation of the second-generation NHI program, which is scheduled to take effect in July, will reportedly be postponed until January next year because of concerns about its financial viability.

The supplementary premiums, which were added to the new NHI program in January last year after the National Health Insurance Act was amended, use different rates for various groups and income categories, and would make the new program more unfair, Taiwan Women’s Link president Huang Shu-ying said.

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Yaung, who saw the law amended before stepping down in February last year, said he had always insisted that the premium calculation should be based on total household income, but the legislature’s Finance Committee overturned the Social Welfare and Environment Hygiene Committee’s proposal at the last minute.

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