Press Releases
Public say healthcare system should be reformed
The Government today (December 19) released the report on the first stage
public consultation on healthcare reform. Results of the consultation showed
that the community generally agreed that there was an imminent need to
reform the current healthcare system and have a clear consensus on the
service reform proposals.
The majority of the public also shared the view that the issue of healthcare
financing should be addressed. Although views were diverse on how to reform
the financing arrangement, they agreed that in-depth discussions should
continue.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, said: "In view of the
community's urge for early implementation of service reform proposals, to
raise the capacity and quality of the current healthcare services to meet
the challenges of ageing population and rising medical costs, we have been
actively allocating resources and will make good use of the committed
increases in healthcare budget over the next few years to implement a series
of reforms."
These reforms included setting up the Working Group on Primary Care to
enhance primary care reform, implementing pilot schemes for supporting the
chronically ill, pursuing public-private partnership pilots under the
concept of "money-follows-patient", developing electronic health record
sharing between the public and private sectors, and strengthening the public
healthcare safety net.
On healthcare financing, the community generally acknowledged the problem of
ageing population. Nearly two-thirds of the public agreed that the current
financing system should be reformed. Although people had divergent views on
what changes were needed for the current arrangement and did not reflect any
mainstream consensus on the six proposed supplementary financing proposals,
their views could be summarised in the following points:
* The public generally agree with the provision of a healthcare safety net
for the low-income group and the disadvantaged by taxpayers, but tend to
favour a supplementary financing option catering for individual needs;
* A number of people share the view that proposals of a mandatory nature do
have certain advantages, but there is a general reservation over
supplementary healthcare financing proposals of a mandatory nature among the
public;
* There are views for and against proposals with elements of saving or
insurance, but higher income groups tend to support more those with
insurance and less for those with savings;
* While the public generally value the equitable access to same standard of
public healthcare by the population as a whole, many people supported more
choice of private services tailored to their own preference in addition to
the basic;
* If proposals requiring individual contributions to healthcare are to be
adopted, people expected that both employers and employees should share the
contributions, but employers have reservations on this;
* If there is sufficient protection provided by the safety net, a number of
people consider that user fee increase is a simple and direct means of
financing.
"Since healthcare financing has a far-reaching impact on the long term
medical development, and the community is willing to continue deliberations
on the issue with a view to finding a solution, we will continue to study
feasible financing options to further consult the public in the second-stage
consultation," Dr Chow said.
When examining possible proposals, the Government will take into
consideration the following broad principles as reflected in the first stage
consultation:
* To preserve the existing public healthcare as a safety net for all, while
providing better and wider choice for individuals who are using or able to
afford private services;
* To take forward financing reform through a step-by-step approach having
regard to the range of views received, and consider possible proposals by
stages, with a view to reaching long-term solutions;
* To consider standardised and incentivised arrangements to facilitate
access to better protection and choices in healthcare with necessary
flexibility to cater for the needs of different age/income segments of the
population;
* To be in line with the concept of "money-follows-patient" under the
healthcare reform, while ensuring sufficient protection to users for price
transparency and cost-effectiveness.
Dr Chow said the Government would continue to retain $50 billion in fiscal
reserve pending a decision on supplementary financing and consider how the
funding could be made use of to assist the implementation of supplementary
financing.
He said the Government planned to launch the second-stage consultation in
the first half of next year. The Government will by then provide a more
concrete proposal and figures for the public to discuss for a consensus to
build a sustainable healthcare system.
The Government published the Healthcare Reform Consultation Document "Your
Health, Your Life" in March this year, followed by the first stage public
consultation to seek people's views on the key principles and concepts of
four service reform proposals and six supplementary financing options. The
consultation ended in June.
During the consultation period, government officials had attended about 20
meetings of the Legislative Council and District Councils, about 130
briefings and forums organised by various sectors in the community. The
Government received more than 4,900 submissions from organisations and
individuals, and commissioned independent consultants to conduct
questionnaire surveys and focus groups to garner public views on service and
financing reforms.
Report on results of the first stage consultation was uploaded to healthcare
reform website of the Food and Health Bureau (http://www.beStrong.gov.hk)
Ends/Friday, December 19, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:19
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