The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced a draft bill to change amount of health insurance coverage in order to improve the fairness. By raising premiums for the country's highest earners, the NHI is expected to earn an additional NT$1.7 billion in income.
The upper limit of health insurance coverage, which has not been adjusted for 12 years, will be raised at the earliest in May. To improve fairness, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced a draft revision that will raise the insurance coverage amount by 5 tiers. The maximum insured monthly salary of NT$182,000 is raised to NT$219,500. An estimated 137,000 people will be affected, of which 93 percent of them are employed. Their monthly health insurance premium will increase from NT$116 to NT$581.
Shang Tung-fu, Director, Social Insurance Department, MOHW: “This will affect the employees the most. Of course, there may also be doctors in this group. But if he or she is a self-practicing physician, there are not many of them. Those really affected will be highly paid employees. Someone with a monthly salary of more than NT$180,000.”
The Department of Social Insurance stated that domestic basic salary and the lower limit of health insurance coverage had been raised 11 times in the past 12 years, as high as a 46 percent increase, but health insurance classification has not been adjusted. Most members at a meeting of the National Health Insurance Committee in February this year said that in order to strengthen the fairness of financial contribution, high-income earners should bear more responsibility for insurance premiums. An estimated 130,000 people will have their monthly premiums increased by NT$116 to NT$1,939, adding more than NT$1.7 billion in income to the National Health Insurance.
Lin Ya-hui, Executive Director, Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation: “Some of our country's citizens may in fact have a very high income, due to the underground economy or overseas income. But they pay a lower premium. How much should the upper limit of insurance coverage be raised so it's more in line with the present? Using income to redistribute our national health insurance burden can be sent back to the public for discussion again.”
The Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation also reminded a past problem that received a lot of criticism for a long time is that many people living overseas have jobs that pay well. Therefore, how to incorporate their income into premium calculations to ensure fairness is also a topic that the government needs to think about.
已長達12年沒調整過的健保投保上限，最快5月調高。為提升負擔公平性，衛福部預告健保投保金額修正草案，保投保金額級距將向上調高5個級距，自現行最高投保月薪18萬2千元，上調至21萬9千5百元，預估受影響人數約13.7萬人。其中9成3為受雇者，每月健保費將增加116元至581元不等。
衛福部社保司長商東福表示：「這個（影響）最大的還是受雇者，當然這裡面也有可能是醫師，但是如果他自行執業的醫師，其實他的數目本來就不多。高薪的員工，就是超過18萬多的這一個薪水的人，才會受到影響。」
社會保險司表示，考量國內基本工資，同時也是健保投保下限過去12年調漲11次，調幅高達46％，但健保分級卻沒有調整。在今年2月健保會會議中，多數委員表示，為了強化健保量能負擔精神，高所得者應負擔較多的保險費責任。預計新制上路後，有13萬人每月負擔增116元至1939元，將可增加健保收入約17億元。
醫改會執行長林雅惠說：「除了地下經濟或海外收入會導致於說，有些國人其實他可能收入蠻高的，但是他卻投保比較低的保費，包含說現在投保上限級距到底要拉到多少，才會更符合現在，所謂的所得再分配這樣的一個效果，其實都是可以再訴諸公眾，來進行這樣的一個討論。」
醫改會也提醒，過往其實還有一個被長期詬病的問題就是，不少長期旅居海外的民眾在國外都有工作，收入可能也不錯，但這部分該如何納入保費計算，確保公平性也是政府該思考的課題。
