KMY Legislators Dodge Responsibility: Taiwan as the World Turns

Tuesday August 24, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) needs some revamping and the KMT dominated Legislative Yuan can do the job so they say. Since they have a strong majority the KMT can do most anything it wants in the Legislative Yuan; so why are they hesitating to act, especially if the actions are necessary and needed? They did not hesitate to ram through the approval of ECFA that Ma wanted. So? Ah yes, it is an election year so they don't want to touch it till after the elections.

The DPP of course has a lot of questions about the bill; but the KMT does not want to face those right now. The Minister of Health Yaung Chih-liang has said he will resign if it is not passed this session, but he was appointed by the KMT so I don't think he will resign from the hand that feeds him even if it will put health issues on hold. Look for the KMT to bring the issues back up when whether they prove unpopular or detrimental will not matter since the elections will be passed. So the world turns in Taiwan.