Clipping Board » Medical Affairs and Administration ─ Medical system, pharmaceuticals, and medical community-related reports
Update Date: 2009/02/26 00:47 Jiang Peijun
The 1.5-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) was urgently halted amidst widespread opposition. However, the Consumers' Foundation today (25th) publicly questioned that despite the NHI Bureau's annual claims of financial difficulties, with a financial shortfall of 28 billion last year (97), the current NHI premiums are already more than 110 billion higher than in 92. Where exactly are the NHI premiums being spent?
The Consumers' Foundation pointed out that the issue of the NHI financial shortfall is not something that can be resolved by simply changing the current system to collect more fees! Instead, it is necessary to reduce the wasteful expenditure of NHI fees and to re-examine the total amount formula. The method and content of the total amount negotiation actually cannot fairly assess the budget for the next year!
Chairman of the Consumers' Foundation, Xie Tianren, stated that the NHI total budget increases by 4% annually, but the NHI Bureau always exhausts the budget each year to strive for a higher budget the following year, leading to the problem of medical resource waste.
Xie Tianren further criticized that although the current NHI fees have increased by more than 110 billion compared to 92, the NHI finances are still in deficit. The biggest problem is that the budget information is not transparent, and there is no oversight.
Looking at the budget approved for this year, the non-negotiable factors agreed upon by the National Health Insurance Medical Expense Agreement Committee have a growth rate of 1.92% to 3.836%, while the growth rate of negotiable factors is only 0.228% to 0.704%. This means that non-negotiable factors account for 80% of the growth rate of general medical service payments.
Xie Tianren pointed out that with a 3.455% growth rate in the approved budget for 98, the total amount increased by approximately 15.9 billion, of which 80% (12 billion) did not require negotiation, compressing the negotiation space and clearly violating the NHI law.
Additionally, the issue of inflated drug prices is also a major cause of the financial black hole, with drug price expenditures accounting for a quarter of the total expenditure each year. Based on a 460 billion budget, drug expenses account for 115 billion. However, there are frequent reports of hospitals colluding with pharmaceutical companies to inflate drug prices. If drug prices continue to rise without an improvement in quality, the public will lose both money and health, and the drug price black hole will expand indefinitely.
The Consumers' Foundation also pointed out that the debts of Taipei and Kaohsiung from 84 to 97 reached 54.738 billion, and the government's total debt is a huge figure. The NHI Bureau has not actively pursued these debts, and the Control Yuan should investigate whether the government's accumulation of NHI fees is illegal or derelict.
The Consumers' Foundation specifically named the "Fee Association," pointing out that the task of reviewing the 400 billion NHI budget is carried out by 27 members of the Fee Agreement Committee, with no other agency overseeing or auditing.
The Fee Association responded that each year, based on the Executive Yuan's annual medical budget, NHI budget negotiations are conducted. After the committee reaches a consensus, it will be submitted to the Department of Health for approval, and the resolution content will be published and made available to the Legislative Yuan or published on the Fee Association's website, with absolutely no issue of information not being disclosed.
The Consumers' Foundation also called for the NHI Bureau to strengthen the oversight system and avoid the expansion of the financial shortfall, rather than blindly filling the black hole with money. Otherwise, NHI fees may become a de facto NHI "tax," and the NHI Bureau's waste will be paid for by the public.
Source: http:/ / tw. news. yahoo. com/ art……url/ d/ a/ 090226/ 52/ 1f33m. html
NT$110 Billion Health Insurance Funds Vanish: Consumer Foundation Warns of Potential Shift to Health Insurance "Tax"
The 1.5-generation National Health Insurance (NHI) was urgently halted amidst widespread opposition. However, the Consumers' Foundation today (25th) publicly questioned that despite the NHI Bureau's annual claims of financial difficulties, with a financial shortfall of 28 billion last year (97), the current NHI premiums are already more than 110 billion higher than in 92. Where exactly are the NHI premiums being spent?
The Consumers' Foundation pointed out that the issue of the NHI financial shortfall is not something that can be resolved by simply changing the current system to collect more fees! Instead, it is necessary to reduce the wasteful expenditure of NHI fees and to re-examine the total amount formula. The method and content of the total amount negotiation actually cannot fairly assess the budget for the next year!
Chairman of the Consumers' Foundation, Xie Tianren, stated that the NHI total budget increases by 4% annually, but the NHI Bureau always exhausts the budget each year to strive for a higher budget the following year, leading to the problem of medical resource waste.
Xie Tianren further criticized that although the current NHI fees have increased by more than 110 billion compared to 92, the NHI finances are still in deficit. The biggest problem is that the budget information is not transparent, and there is no oversight.
Looking at the budget approved for this year, the non-negotiable factors agreed upon by the National Health Insurance Medical Expense Agreement Committee have a growth rate of 1.92% to 3.836%, while the growth rate of negotiable factors is only 0.228% to 0.704%. This means that non-negotiable factors account for 80% of the growth rate of general medical service payments.
Xie Tianren pointed out that with a 3.455% growth rate in the approved budget for 98, the total amount increased by approximately 15.9 billion, of which 80% (12 billion) did not require negotiation, compressing the negotiation space and clearly violating the NHI law.
Additionally, the issue of inflated drug prices is also a major cause of the financial black hole, with drug price expenditures accounting for a quarter of the total expenditure each year. Based on a 460 billion budget, drug expenses account for 115 billion. However, there are frequent reports of hospitals colluding with pharmaceutical companies to inflate drug prices. If drug prices continue to rise without an improvement in quality, the public will lose both money and health, and the drug price black hole will expand indefinitely.
The Consumers' Foundation also pointed out that the debts of Taipei and Kaohsiung from 84 to 97 reached 54.738 billion, and the government's total debt is a huge figure. The NHI Bureau has not actively pursued these debts, and the Control Yuan should investigate whether the government's accumulation of NHI fees is illegal or derelict.
The Consumers' Foundation specifically named the "Fee Association," pointing out that the task of reviewing the 400 billion NHI budget is carried out by 27 members of the Fee Agreement Committee, with no other agency overseeing or auditing.
The Fee Association responded that each year, based on the Executive Yuan's annual medical budget, NHI budget negotiations are conducted. After the committee reaches a consensus, it will be submitted to the Department of Health for approval, and the resolution content will be published and made available to the Legislative Yuan or published on the Fee Association's website, with absolutely no issue of information not being disclosed.
The Consumers' Foundation also called for the NHI Bureau to strengthen the oversight system and avoid the expansion of the financial shortfall, rather than blindly filling the black hole with money. Otherwise, NHI fees may become a de facto NHI "tax," and the NHI Bureau's waste will be paid for by the public.
Source: http:/ / tw. news. yahoo. com/ art……url/ d/ a/ 090226/ 52/ 1f33m. html