The government yesterday abandoned its quest to introduce any time soon a 'personal health care reserve' scheme requiring employee contributions, saying mandatory funding options lacked public support. Such a scheme, which would require employees to contribute 3 per cent to 5 per cent of their income to fund medical insurance and a medical savings reserve they could tap after retirement, has until now been the government's preferred solution. Any reforms would, for now, involve voluntary payments, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said, and the government was seeking only 'supplementary financing' for health care. He also announced that the launch of a second round of public consultation on options for financing reform was being delayed until late this year because of the financial crisis. The government had previously said a consultation paper would be issued in the first half of the year. 'Financing reform will be step by step ... While we still envisage the long-term solution to sustainable financing rests with some form of mandatory solution, we do not believe the community is ready for mandatory financing at this time,' Dr Chow said. A public consultation last year, and an opinion poll, on the government's six financing options found a majority of people opposed paying more taxes or any scheme requiring mandatory contributions. The other options are social health insurance, higher treatment fees, medical savings accounts, voluntary private health insurance and mandatory private health insurance. Dr Chow, who was speaking at a conference on health care reform organised by the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, a think-tank, said the government was committed to remaining the main source of funding for health care. Other speakers at the conference opposed medical savings schemes. Tang Shenglan, a World Health Organisation expert on health care financing, said such schemes - to which employers and employees contribute a portion of salaries - had not worked on the mainland. Nicholas Mays, professor of health policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, agreed a medical savings scheme was not the right way to go. Reacting to Dr Chow's comments, Kwok Ka-ki, who until September represented the medical functional constituency in the Legislative Council, said: 'The government has their own agenda and if that agenda cannot be pushed through they delay it and find all sorts of excuses for not doing anything.' A government spokesman said: 'In view of the financial tsunami, the chief executive has requested all policy bureaus to review their policy priorities ... Prior to the launching of controversial policies, thorough analysis and careful assessment of public reaction should be conducted ... to minimise social tension.'
