Give Hong Kong people more incentives to switch to private health care
Alex He says a survey suggests that many Hongkongers are not yet keen on the insurance proposal
Hong Kong's long-awaited health care financing reform was finally unveiled this month. If implemented, the voluntary health insurance scheme will bring about significant changes to the city's health financing arrangements, which have been in place for decades.
The key: more Hong Kong citizens who have been enjoying heavily subsidised but often crowded public health care services will need to set aside several thousand dollars a year to buy health insurance and switch to private doctors.
This move will be painful but imperative, given the alarming projection that, if we stick to the existing formula of financing health care, spending on health will take up 27 per cent of Hong Kong's total budget by 2033.
The overloaded public medical facilities need substantial relief from long queues, sometimes years long in specialist care. The key to unlock the door has been well known: enabling the upper and middle classes to switch to the underutilised private sector while letting the public system serve the needy.
It took the government decades to realise that neither mandatory health insurance nor compulsory medical savings accounts could be adopted in this liberal city. The voluntary private insurance is a compromised solution.
But from day one, doubts have been cast on how effective it can be. The findings of a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Education in August and September may shed some light on public opinion of private insurance, although the survey was conducted before details of the scheme were revealed.
