Let private insurers help ease health burden

With much debate lately about relative income levels and quality of life in Hong Kong, the issue of health care for an ageing population is going to remain a priority for the public and policymakers alike.

In his policy address, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called for the sustainable development of our health-care system, noting that our ageing population is raising demand for services, while our medical costs have risen alongside public expectations.

The Hong Kong government is allocating more funds to health care. Last year, it gave an extra HK$2.54 billion to the Hospital Authority, raising its annual recurrent subvention to HK$40.4 billion.

The Census and Statistics Department projects that the number of Hong Kong people aged 65 or over will reach 2.12 million by 2031, accounting for about 26 per cent of the total projected population. This trend will put pressure on our personal savings, pensions and health insurance intended to support wage-earners into their increasingly long retirement.

And, as officials and financial providers everywhere are concluding, purely public provision is increasingly going to fall short, putting an onus on the government to find new ways of working with the private sector, and on individuals to take ever greater responsibility for their own support in later life.

Relying on the traditional Asian extended families to support the elderly is no longer an option, in Hong Kong or elsewhere. The East-West Center, for one, has warned that the low childbearing rate in Hong Kong and mainland China could lead to a smaller working population that can support dependents in future.

Leung acknowledged in his address that "public-private partnership in health-care services can foster healthy competition and co-operation", and said the Hospital Authority would study the feasibility of further service outsourcing to the private sector.