There is no plan to include Chinese hospitals in Taiwan's national health insurance program, Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang said Friday. 'It is an old issue, but there is no question of enrolling Chinese hospitals in our national health insurance program for the time being, given the fact that it has not even been put on the agenda of the sixth cross-strait negotiations,' the minister said. He said the department was 'not certain whether this issue will be broached' during the cross-strait talks slated for June. Dismissing a Liberty Times report published Friday with the headline 'Chinese hospitals may be included in insurance program: Yaung, ' the minister said the headline didn't match the story, which was based on the minister's interview with a local cable TV station the previous night. 'The story didn't say that I ever told that to my interviewer, ' Yaung said. 'The paper sees a shadow and becomes pregnant, ' he said, referring to a Hoklo idiom used to describe a gross exaggeration. Yaung said in the interview that the issue had been raised by Chinese Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu during a meeting. Huang suggested putting the issue on the agenda of the negotiations, saying that it would serve the interests of Taiwan businessmen living in China. Yaung said that Taiwanese who seek emergency medical care in China on their own expense may claim compensation in Taiwan under the national health insurance program by presenting medical bills certified by a notary. The notary process is time-consuming, however, and its fees are sometimes more than the medical bills, Yaung said. If Chinese hospitals were listed in the program, the Taiwanese patients would only pay a share of medical care in China, with the remainder covered by the program. The minister refuted the Liberty Times report after he came under fire from lawmakers across the political spectrum. Legislator Wong Chin-chu of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party said the minister will ruin a program that has already run up a huge debt by paying for medical fees in China with Taiwan's funds. Another DPP lawmaker, Twu Shiing-jer, said Yaung should cut the red tape for claiming compensation rather than enrolling Chinese hospitals in the program. Kuomintang Legislator Wu Ching-chih said the minister often brings trouble on himself with reckless statements and should be careful not to talk about plans in their early stages. 