Health Care Reform
96. We take pride in our current health care system. Our health care personnel are highly professional. The public health care system provides quality subsidised health care services to the general public, ensuring that no one with financial difficulties will be denied proper health care. But there are causes for concern. For example, the proportion of our old-aged population continues to rise. According to the population projection, the proportion of those aged over 65 will increase from less than one eighth of the present population to more than one fourth of the population by 2030. The incidence of diseases, including chronic illnesses, has been rising. We anticipate that the demand for health care services will increase substantially.
97. We need to plan ahead for these challenges so that Hong Kong will maintain its competitive edge. Given the increasing demand for health care services, we need to devote more resources to this area. We also need to implement a comprehensive and fundamental reform of our health care system to maximise medical benefits and promote the good health of the community. We plan to adopt a full range of health care reform initiatives. They include enhancing primary health care and promoting family doctor-based services; introducing more services through public-private-partnership; encouraging healthy competition between the private and public sectors, and purchasing health care services from the private sector. We will explore alternative models of public-private-partnership to provide health care services and develop medical centres of excellence. We will also study the establishment of medical centres in paediatrics and neuroscience to upgrade our health care services, and develop a territory-wide, patient-oriented electronic health record.
98. While taking forward these reforms, we need to face reality. Given the inevitable increase in the proportion of long-term health care expenditure as a percentage of GDP, we must make long-term arrangements for health care financing. The purpose of health care financing is to support health care reform and ensure the sustainable development of our health care system rather than reduce the Government's commitment. I have decided to increase the Government's recurrent expenditure on medical and health services from the present 15% to 17% in 2011-12. However, it is impossible for the Government to increase public health care expenditure indefinitely. We must also introduce supplementary financing in parallel. The Secretary for Food and Health will give an account of various reforms, including details of the financing package, and conduct a public consultation by year end. I hope that the community will take this opportunity to forge a consensus on taking forward health care reform.
