People covered by the government-proposed medical insurance scheme will enjoy a matching grant if they save up for their future premiums, the health secretary says. Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said yesterday the government would go ahead with the health care financing reform as the public consultation had received a good response. He believes most people will accept a monthly insurance premium ranging fromHK$100 for the young to about HK$500 for the elderly. The HK$50 billion start-up fund will be used as a 'matching fund' to add to patients' personal savings in their insurance accounts. The bureau will set out details of the scheme and the regulatory mechanism after the three-month public consultation ends on January 7. 'Most people have no strong objections to the reform and many ask us how to move their existing plans to the scheme,' Chow said. 'We have received lots of views, which is not surprising because it is a very complex issue.' He said the Health Protection Scheme would encourage policyholders to save. The money in their accounts could be used to pay premiums when they turned 65. The government would match the savings. Ultimately, the scheme aims to cover at least 500,000 people. Regulated by the government, it would help ease pressure on the public system by drawing more people to private services. Insurers would have to guarantee policy renewal and could not exclude those with pre-existing conditions. The standard plan would cover packaged medical services at private hospitals but not outpatient consultations and treatment. The four new private hospitals being planned will be required to provide general ward services for at least 30 per cent of beds. The public consultation has heard concerns about the scheme's long-term sustainability. But Chow said the HK$50 billion start-up fund could support the scheme for about 20 years and he did not see why the government would stop pumping money into the scheme if it was well supported by the public. The government would set up a new regulatory body to oversee the plan. Chow said premiums would be set by 'consensus' among insurers, service providers and patients. The government would play a supervisory role when it came to setting premiums. 'If insurers set very high premiums, no one will buy their products,' he said. But the president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Dr Choi Kin, said public resistance to the reform remained strong. 'More than 70 medical, patient and community groups expressed their views at Legco last week and most have reservations,' he said. 'Many groups want the government to provide tax rebates for health care expenditure, but the government does not agree.' Some doctor and patients' rights groups claim the proposal fails to cover primary care and would damage service quality by promoting fix-priced services. They are also concerned there will be unbalanced development in the private hospitals, where obstetric services for mainland mothers dominate. Chow played down the fears, saying the four new private hospitals would have their obstetric beds capped at 20 per cent of total beds, while the number of private beds would increase by up to 100 per cent in the next five years as six existing private hospitals were planning expansions. 'We always give priority to local mothers when it comes to public obstetric services,' he said. The latest consultation paper 'My Health My Choice' is the sixth document of its kind in 17 years. 'We are confident about the latest plan,' Chow said. 'In the past, most proposals just asked people to pay more. This time we actually worked out a service reform, such as expanding the private sector to take in more patients covered by insurance.'