MEDICAL charges are likely to rise at the end of an 18-month freeze in September because of the growing spending burden.
A senior official yesterday said medical charges were too low.
The charge for daily hospital care is $68 and $37 for outpatients at Department of Health clinics.
Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced a one-year moratorium on government fees and charges in his Budget speech last year. The moratorium was extended this year for another six months until the end of September.
Authors of the Harvard report on medical care, released this week, have warned that charges would rise drastically if a mandatory insurance scheme was not introduced.
The official also warned that health expenditure would increase by large amounts if there was no reform.
