Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou would like to see Department of Health (DOH) chief Yaung Chih-liang stay on, and he supports the rejection of Yaung's resignation by "Premier" Wu Den-yih, a "Presidential Office" spokesman said yesterday.

Yaung announced his resignation Monday, citing a disagreement with Wu on how health insurance premium rates should be adjusted to raise revenues for the cash-strapped program.

The "president" supports public health insurance system reform and thinks that the adjustment of the insurance premium rates has room for discussion, said "Presidential Office" spokesman Lo Chih-chiang.

Lo also dismissed reports that a high-level meeting at the "Presidential Office" Monday was the key to Yaung's resignation.

According to the reports, participants at the encounter tended to support Wu's proposal that 75 percent of the population enrolled in the compulsory health insurance plan be left unaffected by the premium increase plan, as opposed to 59 percent under the DOH head's version.

Lo said the participants did discuss several options to improve the system's finances, but the only consensus reached at the meeting was to invite related officials to give a briefing March 17.

Yaung went to his office yesterday to pack his things, and he asked reporters waiting there to describe him as the "former" DOH head, a sign of his determination to leave despite Wu's efforts to keep him from stepping down.

Meanwhile, civic groups said yesterday that Yaung was an able man who knew how to solve the ailing health insurance system's problems, but who still ended up resigning.

They said that if the Executive Yuan has no determination to push for a second-generation health insurance system, then no new DOH head can solve the problem.

Teng Hsi-hua, a spokesman for a public health insurance monitoring group, said that given the ruling Kuomintang's overwhelming majority in the 113-seat legislature, if it is sincere in pushing for a second-generation system, it will be able to pass it.

The second-generation health insurance program would calculate premiums based on total household income instead of only on salary and wages, as is the case at present.

The new system would ensure that those with unearned income, such as from capital gains on stock market and property transactions or rental income, would pay more in health insurance premiums.

Liu Mei-chun, executive director of the Taiwan Medical Reform Foundation, said the insurance program, which had accumulated a debt of NT$58.8 billion as of the end of last year, is in dire straits.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/10/2010 page4)