englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx … FD85F7DBAC
This guy wants foreign students to pay a higher premium or else be barred from the national health insurance program. You’d think he’s just a lone racist nutcase. Now more than 13,000 locals are rallying behind him. Xenophobia is alive and well in Taiwan.
I remember the good old days when foreigners were really barred from NHI. It was no fun paying 600nts or more for each visit to the doctor. I do know the NHI has some economic problems but I do not think foreigners are such a heavy drag -or significant population- to make a dent even if we were actually a heavy burden. Moreover, I think that with about half a million immigrants, most of them women of child bearing age or bearing children -Taiwanese children, that is- it would be difficult to implement this idea without raising a big stink. A big portion of them are Chinese, Mainland Chinese of origin, and touching their fellow comrades won’t run well on election day.
That this complaint is focused on Chinese students is ridiculous, yet dangerous as it can easily spread to other foreign students and then other foreign population.
I am all for paying taxes here in taiwan - I can see them in motion. I may agree to a higher NHI fee if they say my salary is higher than a certain amaount or even if they say I have a chronic condition -a la private insurance company. But I cannot see how my being a foreigner has anything to do with my use of medical services. It is not as if I was stashing meds or something. I cannot see the Chinese students organizing themselves to ravish medical resources here. If any, free access -free as in open, not free as in not paying at all- to Taiwanese fair and convenient and high quality medical resources can be of extreme help in improving Taiwan’s image and garnering support across the Strait.
And this game of making Mainlanders “foreigners” for some things and not for others really pisses me off. It’s like this Tiayoutai thing. I’d ask tehm to chooose sides or make their minds up, but that seems to much to bear.
Considering all the missiles China has aimed at Taiwan, I don’t think mainlanders should have any of the benefits Taiwan has to offer when they come here. Actually, mainlanders coming here won’t change anything, so they might as well be banned again. Taiwan was a much better place when there weren’t so many Chinese people here.
I think foreigners and non-residents are mixed upsomewhere
It appears to be a protest against Chinese students having access to NHI, not really all foreigners.
I think locals should be charged more, as they are the ones that are to blame for the massive deficit.
Back home if I have a cold, flu, a minor sore throat etc, I won’t go to the doctor. I will at most get some over the counter stuff.
Here they go to a doctor for the most minor thing.
If I cough NT wife tells me to go to the doctor. When I say it is not necessary she insists and says the NHI will pay so I should go.
I still don’t, but this seems to be one of the major flaws of the system.
There should also be a referral system. Back home, health insurance will only pay for a specialist if your GP says you need to see one.
Here anyone can go see a specialist. Sore finger, go see the orthapedic surgeon etc.
I would assume the price for seeing a specialist is higher than a GP, as it is in most countries? If so, more waste.
True, but they cannot change the just approved legislation without generalizing the whole bit. As I said, it starts with students, and then it could spread. Enemy of my enemy and all that jazz.
[quote=“bigduke6”]
Here they go to a doctor for the most minor thing.
If I cough NT wife tells me to go to the doctor. When I say it is not necessary she insists and says the NHI will pay so I should go.
I still don’t, but this seems to be one of the major flaws of the system.
There should also be a referral system. Back home, health insurance will only pay for a specialist if your GP says you need to see one.
Here anyone can go see a specialist. Sore finger, go see the orthapedic surgeon etc.
I would assume the price for seeing a specialist is higher than a GP, as it is in most countries? If so, more waste.[/quote]
This is what the NHI system was designed for. If you don’t use it for colds, then you’re just throwing your money away every month…(Most locals have private insurance for major illnesses; it’s well known that NHI provides inadequate coverage for serious issues.)
True, but they cannot change the just approved legislation without generalizing the whole bit. As I said, it starts with students, and then it could spread. Enemy of my enemy and all that jazz.[/quote]
You’re right, Icon. Plus, the guy is a greenie working under the Ma administration, so the last thing he wants is to come across as a sinophobe if he wants to keep his job. Hence the usage of “foreigners” as a catchall that included the “foreign” Chinese. But now that he’s dragged down all foreigners, I’m pretty offended by his original facebook post:
[quote]外國人若要選擇台灣全民健保做為其醫療保險的保證, 可以, 保費絕不是目前的費基, 外國人過去沒有一分貢獻 沒繳納過一毛稅, 與全民有很大差別![/quote]“If foreigners choose to join Taiwan’s national health insurance system, that’s fine, but the premium should not be what it is now. Foreigners in the past have not made any contributions and not paid a penny in taxes, which is a very big difference from Taiwan’s citizens.”
Sinophobia or xenophobia, neither evil is less than the other.
People should have to pay into the system if they want to use it. However, that would disqualify lots of Taiwanese who don’t pay in as much as they take out. If this were an argument for a user pays system (i.e. some sort of laissez faire argument), then fair enough, but I don’t think it is. Frankly, Chinese moochers and Taiwanese moochers are both moochers. The difference is that the Taiwanese moochers also get to vote. I think that’s the problem. Don’t let any moochers (including Taiwanese moochers) vote. Problem goes away.
I thought people were making a big stink about this, but it seems this fella is out and out racist after reading the original posting in Chinese. Hopefully he loses his job.
It’s also a lesson to those who think the Greenies are nicer to foreigners…they are no better, and from their previous policies I would definitely say worse than the current lot.
Chewy has been saying that for years.
Ignorant prick, I am a foreigner and I pay tens of thousands of NT a month for my local employees to have jianbao.
People like him should be outed as the scum they are.
[color=#FF0000]Chewy has been saying that for years[/color].[/quote]
And attacked relentlessly by rabid Vorkosigan-like pro-green liberal-arts-minded apologists on here with very little real or non-academic exposure with the inner workings of such a nativist party. 
It is interesting that some people like headhonchoII are finally seeing the light. But I could never let such experiences in government in Taiwan sour my overall Taiwan experience. Best work experiences ever in the private sector in Taiwan. But government? Sandman has said it best. There is no pan green or pan blue, only pan brown!
I don’t need input from rabid Canadians to see the light, I figured that out many years ago. I agree some other people were taken in though.
Not that the KMT is significantly better, they just realize now that they need some foreign investment, Taiwan coming 2nd last in FDI last year!
For both sides it’s your patriotic duty to f the foreigners.
I sincerely believe I’m the only one on my block that actually pays his full taxes. 
Why even my landlord (a former tax bureau official) will pay me to not to expense the rent for taxes. :aiyo: It’s harder to cheat on NHI, and the cap is low, so most people pay it.
[/quote]
I kind of get this point though. Let’s say I’m Johnnie Foreigner and I literally step off the plane and then require some sort of expensive procedure. After my stint of throwing a sticky ball and shagging local chicks for two years, I return to my country of origin. The Taiwanese taxpayer is definitely out of pocket.
So what, “expensive procedure”, are you going to fob off on NHI exactly? Good frucking ruck. Most expenive procedures have some significant component of patient pay.
[/quote]
I kind of get this point though. Let’s say I’m Johnnie Foreigner and I literally step off the plane and then require some sort of expensive procedure. After my stint of throwing a sticky ball and shagging local chicks for two years, I return to my country of origin. The Taiwanese taxpayer is definitely out of pocket.[/quote]
That’s why they have the health check, d’uh!