HK$10b shot in the arm for poor patients
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) was one of the parties that approved the financial secretary's budget in the Legislative Council on March 22.
The budget aimed to please the middle class, and the feedback from that sector of society was quite positive.
It is worth noting that, this year, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah earmarked HK$10 billion for the Samaritan Fund, which was set up to provide subsidies to needy patients to relieve the financial burden resulting from drug expenses.
This sum will be spread over 10 years, with HK$1 billion being injected each year into the fund. This is three times the size of the existing fund. It will enable more patients in need to benefit from the scheme and more types of drugs to be covered.
For some time, the public had been calling for an injection of additional resources into this fund to help patients in need.
There were calls for the Community Care Fund to be utilised, but the government decided to allocate this substantial sum directly from the budget. It seems that this time the administration has listened to public opinion.