Hong Kong’s voluntary health insurance scheme may cover city’s first TCM hospital
- Insurance expert explains sector needs to look to mainland after Health Bureau says it started preparatory efforts for hospital’s inclusion
An insurance industry executive said on Monday the sector would need to look to mainland China when designing the insurance products because Hong Kong had no precedent of inpatient Chinese medicine services.
The scheme was launched in 2019 to alleviate the strain on the public healthcare system by offering regulated hospital insurance products with high market transparency. Only private inpatient services are covered by the scheme.
A Health Bureau spokesman said on Monday that the government had already started its preparatory efforts for the inclusion of the hospital’s services.
“The Health Bureau has reached out to the insurance industry and operators of the Chinese Medicine Hospital to facilitate their communication and prepare for the inclusion of the services into the voluntary health insurance scheme,” he said.
The bureau added that it had been monitoring the scheme’s implementation and market response, and would review its future direction once the market matured.