President Ma Ying-jeou met with Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang Wednesday in an effort to convince him to stay in his post.

Ma, who concurrently serves as ruling Kuomintang (KMT) chairman, met with Yaung at KMT headquarters before a weekly KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, party sources said.

It marked the first time the president had met with Yaung since the latter announced his surprise resignation Monday over what he called his disagreement with Premier Wu Den-yih on how the national health insurance premium rates should be adjusted to keep the cash-strapped program afloat.

During their brief meeting, the sources said, Yaung presented Ma with a DOH-drafted insurance premium reform report.

According to the sources, Yaung was apparently adamant on sticking to his decision to quit, despite Ma’s efforts to persuade him to stay. However, he did reaffirm a promise to attend a March 17 meeting to be chaired by Ma on the health insurance premium issue.

Yaung said at a hastily called news conference earlier in the day that he will brief Ma in person on the premium reform plan next Wednesday.

“I feel bad about leaving my post before completing the scheduled briefing… It is inappropriate for me to offer to resign before finishing my work. It shows a lack of respect for the country,” Yaung said.

In his March 8 resignation statement, Yaung said the DOH could not go along with Wu’s insistence that 75 percent of the public should be unaffected by the planned increases and that only the wealthiest 25 percent should be made to pay more.

“We could only assure Wu that 59 percent of the insured would remain unaffected by the premium hikes,” Yaung said.

Besides the DOH-drafted reform package, the Executive Yuan-proposed version, another proposal that includes different premium rates for different income levels will also be discussed at the March 17 meeting, Yaung said.

Wu has rejected Yaung’s resignation, but Yaung said Wednesday that he will nonetheless continue his ongoing leave of absence until March 17.

As of the end of last year, the national health insurance program had accumulated debts of NT$58.8 billion (US$1.84 billion), an amount that might soar to an estimated NT$101.5 billion by the end of 2010 if no adjustments are made.

Meanwhile, Cheng Shou-hsia, director of the DOH’s Bureau of National Health Insurance, said it will be up to the president or premier to decide which adjustment package should be adopted and when the adjustment will take effect.

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