TAIPEI: The government will no longer pay health insurance premiums for mainland citizens visiting Taiwan for short periods of time as professionals, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday, announcing a new policy.

Once the regulation clears the Executive Yuan, visiting mainland specialists, professionals and scholars covered by the "National Health Insurance" (NHI) scheme would be required to pay their own premiums in the Level 1 category, DOH officials said.

Currently, the Taiwan government pays 40 percent of the NHI premiums for such mainland professionals.

NHI premiums for Level 1 professionals are calculated on 4.55 percent of their monthly salary, with a standard salary of NT$131,700 ($4,142) or more, said Chu Tong-kuang, deputy convener of a DOH task force on insurance premiums.

This means that mainland professionals will have to pay roughly NT$5,900 per month in NHI premiums, Chu added.

However, Chu said, some mainland professionals may argue that they do not earn as much as NT$131,700 a month in Taiwan. In such cases, he said, they can produce documents to make a case for lower premiums based on lower incomes, he added.

Currently, the government pays 40 percent of the NHI premiums for mainland professionals working in Taiwan and the payments are calculated based on a Level 6 status, which means their premium payments range from NT$659 per month upward.

The policy has been criticized by legislators from the ruling and opposition parties as being "too accommodating."

The new regulation is expected to take effect soon, once it is approved by the Executive Yuan.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 01/13/2010 page2)