Legislator says more than a million zero-earnings households have income from stock trading

Premium rates under a second-generation national health insurance (NHI) program may be lowered if income from stock transactions is factored into total household earnings, Department of Health (DOH) chief Yaung Chih-liang said Monday.

Once the "Ministry of Finance" and other relevant government agencies agree, the calculation of NHI premiums would not necessarily be linked to the income tax base, but could include other sources of revenue such as income from securities transactions, Yaung said.

If the premium base is widened, then rates certainly will be lower under the second-generation NHI program that is expected to come on stream in two years, he added at a public hearing in the legislature.

According to former legislator Wang Jung-chang, among Taiwan's 5.46 million households that file returns, 1.94 million are not required to pay income tax, and 67 of those households that register zero earnings actually have income totalling NT$750 million ($24 million) from stock transactions.

Meanwhile, some experts raised doubts over a proposal to calculate NHI premiums in low-income households on the basis of the number of members in the household.

Under the proposed plan, which the DOH revealed for the first time last week, households earning less than NT$150,000 a year will be required to pay a monthly premium of around NT$300 per person.

Sun Yo-lian, head of the NHI Civilian Surveillance Alliance, argued that the plan will put a heavy burden on large and low-income households. For example, a four-member household will be required to pay NT$1,200 per month, he noted.

Director-General of the "Bureau of National Health Insurance" (BNHI) Cheng Shou-hsia responded that his bureau has asked Academia Sinica research fellow Cyrus C.Y. Chu to study a better way to decrease premiums for large and low-income households.

The DOH has proposed an upper limit of NT$7.5 million in total annual household income and a lower limit of NT$150,000 for the calculation of NHI premiums.

If total household income exceeds the upper limit of NT$7.5 million, each person in the household will be required to pay NT$16,062 per month, according to the proposal.

In cases where total household income falls between the upper and the lower limit, the premium rates will be between 2.57 percent and 3.06 percent, it states.

Under a temporary plan that took effect April 1, health insurance premium rates have been raised to between 4.55 percent and 5.17 percent of an individual's salary.

As of the end of last year, the national health insurance program had accumulated debts of NT$58.8 billion, an amount officials said could soar to an estimated NT$101.5 billion by the end of 2010 if no adjustments were made.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 05/04/2010 page4)