Wu rejects Yaung's offer to step down and will discuss the issue with him

Department of Health (DOH) chief Yaung Chih-liang announced his surprise resignation yesterday following a disagreement with "Premier" Wu Den-yih on how the public health insurance premiums should be adjusted to bolster the cash-strapped program, but the latter rejected Yaung's resignation and demanded a meeting with him to discuss the issue.

Yaung said at a hastily called news conference that he could not go along with Wu's insistence that 75 percent of the people should be unaffected by the premium increase plan and that only the wealthiest 25 percent should be made to pay more.

Wu simply replied, "No, he can't do it," when reporters asked for his comment on Yaung's resignation. He was attending a gathering in Taipei marking the 100th anniversary of the International Working Women's Day. Wu added he will talk to Yaung in person about the matter, without saying when.

According to various schemes drawn up by the DOH's "Bureau of National Health Insurance", Yaung said he could only assure Wu that 59 percent of local people would remain unaffected by the adjustment plan.

Yaung said his department has tried to the best of its ability, but still has not been able to meet Wu's target. "Against this backdrop, I should not remain in my post," he concluded.

In his resignation statement, Yaung further said he has consistently felt that the government should make introducing a second-generation health insurance program its ultimate reform goal.

A second-generation health insurance program would calculate premiums based on total household incomes instead of the existing system that is based only on the insured people's earned income without taking into account unearned income such as stock market profits. The new system would ensure that rich people would pay more in insurance fees.

His resignation leaves the second-generation plan in limbo.

Yaung was only the second non-physician DOH chief in the department's 39-year history.

During his tenure of a little under eight months, he experienced several major controversial events, including the lifting of a ban on bone-in US beef and the H1N1 immunization program.

Yaung had vowed shortly after assuming office that he would oversee reforms in Taiwan's health insurance program. At the time, he said that Taiwan has a widely acclaimed health insurance program, but added that it is on shaky ground because of its long-term financial strains. As "health minister", Yaung said, he was obligated to transform the program into a financially viable system.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/09/2010 page4)