Health chief York Chow Yat-ngok decided to consult the public on reforming the delivery model of health-care services - without releasing details of the financial arrangements that will have to be introduced to realise that vision.
He is mindful of the painful experiences of past consultations, when critics focused merely on how much more patients would have to pay - then trashed the associated proposals regardless of their merits.
Between 1993 and last year, no less than four consultations were held on health-care financing. Proposals debated, then shelved, ranged from raising fees, targeting subsidies, introducing a universal health insurance scheme to setting up health-protection accounts.
This time round, Dr Chow has adopted a softly, softly approach - trying first to obtain a consensus on his vision of a better future, one based on better integration of the public and private medical sectors. He wants to tell the public first about the improved medical system they will get, so there will be a more rational discussion about costs.
Essentially, his blueprint is about reforming the private medical sector, to encourage more people to seek treatment at private, instead of public, clinics and hospitals. In future, the remit of the public health-care sector will be confined to four areas - acute and emergency care, the poor, illnesses that entail high cost, and training.
Dr Chow has taken care to note that there is no question of the public sector drastically reducing its services in the short term. Rather, his proposals are about creating the conditions for the private sector to expand gradually, to relieve the burden on the public sector.
The trouble with Dr Chow's approach is that few people will stick their necks out to endorse his vision now, without knowing how it will be funded and how much more people will have to pay. So far, only private doctors and hospitals have endorsed his vision, because they are bound to benefit from it.
