TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As Taiwan's aging society has turned into a national security issue, the country should liberalize its immigration policies to make up for the expected drop in population, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said Thursday (Dec. 3).

Kuan specifically warned that if immigration policies remained unchanged, the cost of health insurance would have to rise drastically, the Liberty Times reported. In order to maintain the system’s revenue of NT$1.2 trillion (US$42.29 billion), premiums will have to rise threefold by 2061, she said.

According to Kuan, Taiwan should follow the examples set by Japan, South Korea, and Canada, and liberalize a far-too-conservative immigration policy in order to compensate for its dwindling population.

If the Ministry of Interior fails to adapt, Taiwan will find itself with a grave age imbalance by 2046, the DPP lawmaker said. The number of citizens under 18 is projected to fall to 2 million by that year, while the number of people between the ages of 18 and 21 will be halved from 1.23 million in 2016 to 620,000 in 2046.

In contrast, over the same period, the number of people over 65 will more than double from 3.11 million today to 7.28 million, and those over 85 will surge from 360,000 to 1.37 million, Kuan warned.

Japan has relaxed its restrictions on permanent residence permits, and South Korea and Canada have allowed the number of immigrants to the countries to rise year after year, she said. The Ministry of the Interior responded by pointing out it has been changing rules to attract more professionals from overseas while also taking further reforms into consideration.