The Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the Taipei City Government on Thursday and asked it to pay an NT$10.8 billion health insurance subsidy debt that was accrued between 1999 and 2002 to the central governments Bureau of National Health （中央健保局） Insurance. The ruling cannot be appealed again.

Commenting on the verdict, BNHI General Manager Chu Tse-ming said that he hopes the city government can arrange its budget to allow repayment of the debt as soon as possible, as the city presently owes more than NT$28 billion to the bureau.

Chu said that the courts verdict will help pave the way for the bureau to claim an additional NT$18 billion from the city government which it has refused to pay over the years.

Yang Hsiao-tung, Taipei City Government director of information, later noted the city government will continue other related lawsuits against the BNHI to ensure the basic rights of Taipei City citizens.

The case began in 2003 when the BNHI issued an official paper asking the city government to pay nearly NT$10.8 billion in health insurance subsidies to cover expenses accrued by people whose registrated household was not in Taipei City between the second half year of 1999 to the end of 2002. The BNHI, who insists that as long as the insured individuals were working in the city they were the city governments responsibility, then sought an administrative appeal against the city government over the matter, and the city government in turn brought an administrative lawsuit against the BNHIs to demand its withdrawal of the case.

During a meeting on May 23, the chief judge and his colleagues reached a consensus, ruling that the Taipei City government has to pay for workers health insurance as long as the insurance units - typically peoples places of employment - are in Taipei City.

The court then determined the city government lost its case and asked it to pay the hefty debt in the first verdict, prompting the city government to appeal the case. The second verdict, however, was in favor of the city government and the BNHI appealed the case. The final verdict, issued yesterday, cannot be appealed again.

Taipei is not the only city that owes health insurance subsidies to the BNHI, but it is the city that ran up the most debt. Currently there are 52 similar cases under review by the court. Media reports quote observers as saying that Thursdays ruling may trigger a domino effect.