Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ10: Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme

Following is a question by the Hon Alice Mak and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (February 20):

Question:

In 2009, the authorities launched the Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme (Pilot Scheme) to encourage the elderly people to select the private primary care services in the community that most suit their needs, with a view to alleviating the pressure on public healthcare services. Some members of the public have pointed out that although the authorities have already enhanced the Pilot Scheme for a number of times, with the number of elderly persons in Hong Kong increasing every year, the effectiveness of the Pilot Scheme is still dubious. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the respective current numbers of elderly persons belonging to the age groups of 65 to 69 and 70 or above, broken down by the 18 District Council districts (18 districts); the respective projected numbers of elderly persons belonging to these age groups in each of the coming five years;

(b) of the annual numbers of elderly persons who used Health Care Vouchers since the Pilot Scheme was launched, broken down by 18 districts, as well as their percentages in the total number of eligible elderly persons in the respective years;

(c) of the current number of healthcare service providers enrolled in the Pilot Scheme, with a breakdown of the number of practices of such healthcare service providers by 18 districts and the 10 healthcare professions participating in the Pilot Scheme (set out in Table 1);

(d) of the number of healthcare service providers who have withdrawn from the Pilot Scheme, and whether it knows the reasons for their withdrawal;

(e) whether it has compiled statistics on the number of elderly persons who used up all the Health Care Vouchers in one go in each year since the Pilot Scheme was launched; if it has, of the figures; if not, the reasons for that;

(f) whether it has put in place any mechanism for compiling statistics on the average service charges of the various healthcare professions concerned, so as to assess whether the value of the Health Care Vouchers is sufficient for paying the relevant service charges; if it has, of the details of the mechanism and the respective average service charges of the healthcare professions concerned; if not, the reasons for that; and

(g) as the authorities indicated at the meeting of this Council's Panel on Health Services held on November 19, 2012 that "the authorities would continue to review the effectiveness of the Health Care Voucher Scheme including the eligible age", when the review will be completed and the results published; of the major factors to be taken into account by the authorities, apart from the financial implications, when they consider whether the eligible age will be lowered?

Reply:

President,

My reply to the question raised by the Hon Alice Mak is as follows:

(a) According to the "Projections of Population Distribution, 2010-2019" published by the Planning Department in 2010, the population projections for the age groups of 65 to 69 and 70 or above by District Council districts in 2013 and the following five years are listed at Table 2.

(b) The yearly figures on the numbers of Health Care Voucher (HCV) claim transactions by districts, the number of elders who used HCVs and their percentages in the total number of eligible elders for the period from 2009 to 2012 are listed at Table 3.

(c) As at the end of 2012, there were a total of 3 627 qualified healthcare service providers enrolled in the Pilot Scheme, involving 4 945 places of practice (as a service provider can register more than one place of practice for accepting use of HCVs). The numbers of enrolled healthcare service providers broken down by places of practice/districts and healthcare professions are listed at Table 4.

(d) As at the end of 2012, a total of 336 enrolled healthcare service providers withdrew from the Pilot Scheme. The most common reason is that the enrolled healthcare service providers have changed employment (e.g. working for another medical group).

(e) As at the end of 2012, the number of elders who used up all HCVs in one go when they used HCVs for the first time is as follows:

Year         Number of elders who used up all HCVs in one
                go when they used HCVs for the first time
2009                             36 370
2010                             9 084
2011                             5 653
2012                             2 942

(f) During the first three years of the Pilot Scheme (i.e. 2009 to 2011), enrolled healthcare service providers were not required to input information on the amount of fee they charged into the eHealth System for voucher claims. Starting from 2012, service providers are required to input the relevant information into the enhanced system, including the voucher amount used by elders and the amount of additional fees collected by service providers. We will compile the relevant statistics and analysis after collecting sufficient data.

(g) We have just doubled the amount of HCVs to $1,000 per year since January 1, 2013 and will convert the Scheme from a pilot project into a recurrent support programme for the elderly in 2014. After the Scheme has operated as a recurrent support programme for some time, we will conduct a further review to examine the response of the eligible elders and the participation rate apart from assessing the longer-term financial sustainability of the Government.


Ends/Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:03

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LCQ10 Tables