TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan People's Party (TPP) presidential hopeful Ko Wen-je presented his long-term care policies and highlighted the predicaments that the current one is facing on Thursday (Sept. 21).
Ko rolled out several suggestions to solve the current predicaments, including enlarging the budget for long-term care to ＮＴ$230 billion, increasing subsidies for residential care facilities threefold, and providing cash subsidies for home caretakers.
In response to the Democratic Progressive Party's criticism over the low coverage of long-term care when Taipei was under his tenure, Ko emphasized that it was because people hiring foreign caretakers were not eligible for long-term care policies. In the future, he will ensure that long-term care is not exclusionary for this type of individual.
Ko also argued that the current long-term care program is insufficient for those with severe conditions, pointing out that it is puzzling that subsidies for individuals reliant on tracheostomy tubes, urinary catheters, or nasogastric tubes are limited.
However, in responding to Ko's criticism, DPP hopeful Lai Ching-te pointed out that when Taiwan was under former President Ma's administration, the budgets for long-term care only stood at around ＮＴ$5 billion, with only around 20,000 long-term caretakers and their salaries were under ＮＴ$30,000.
Lai lauded that the number of long-term caretakers has increased to around 90,000 with increased salaries during President Tsai Ing-wen's two terms in office.
As Taiwan grapples with a rapidly aging population and is on course to become a hyper-aged society by 2026, all the presidential candidates are working hard to present more comprehensive and constructive policies to win over the voters' hearts.
