Lawmakers debating the government's proposed voluntary health insurance scheme yesterday expressed fears that the HK$50 billion fund will benefit insurers and private medical services rather than patients. The Legislative Council's health services panel began debating the plan yesterday after Secretary for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok tabled a report for implementing the government-regulated Health Protection Scheme by 2015. The government wants to use the HK$50 billion over 20 years to subsidise premiums for high-risk groups such as the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. The scheme will also cover hospital services, offer guaranteed renewal and portability among different insurers. Several panel members expressed concern that taxpayers' money should not be used to subsidies private insurance. Democrat Cheung Man-kwong said dumping such a huge amount on the insurance market would boost insurance premiums and lead to inflation in the price of medical services. 'Pushing patients to the private sector would only benefit the insurers and services providers. It will even worsen brain drain in the public sector and leave a second-class service at the public hospitals,' Cheung said. Public hospitals have been suffering from a severe manpower shortage, and some doctors worry that the opening of four new private hospitals, as the government has planned, would further draw manpower to the private sector. But Chow rejected these reservations, saying that the reforms can help control the prices and premiums by giving the government better regulation of the market. 'If we don't do anything, the private sector will still benefit, and benefit without any control. So I think it is important for us to set up certain regulations for them. But at the same time, we still give consumers and patients a certain freedom of choice to choose hospitals and doctors,' he told reporters after the meeting. Insurance sector legislator Chan Kin-por said at the meeting that it had been a misconception that insurers would take a lion share of the HK$50 billion. 'There is a lot of finger-pointing at us. The fact is insurers are just mangers of the premium, more than 80 per cent of the money goes to the private hospitals and doctors.' According to a government public opinion poll, about 70 per cent of 5,000 respondents agreed that the government should encourage a wider use of private services by those who could afford it, allowing public services to focus on serving the needy. Hong Kong Federation of Insurers chief executive Peter Tam Chung-ho said while insurers did not prefer a ceiling in premium, a cap on administrative fees was acceptable to ease concerns over prices. 'If the cap is set at a reasonable level, I see no reason not to accept it.' Elaine Chan Sau-ho, deputy chairwoman of the federation's task force on health care reform, said she hoped the scheme would attract 500,000 customers. 3.2m The number of Hongkongers covered by some form of medical insurance, of whom 2.2 million belong to a corporate scheme