Govt rejects call to expand public medical fee waiver

Health minister Lo Chung-mau on Wednesday rejected an idea from the DAB to expand automatic fee waivers for public healthcare patients. Since the start of the year, patients aged 75 and above receiving the Old Age Living Allowance do not need to pay for services at public clinics and hospitals. The party wants the full waiver extended to allowance recipients aged 65 and above. But Lo said such a move would immediately allow another 450,000 people to have their fees fully waived, and this goes against the purpose of recent reforms. "Such an expansion will further intensify the pressure that an ageing population has already been placing on the sustainability of the public healthcare system," he told lawmakers at a Legislative Council meeting. "[This runs] counter to the government’s intention to address the challenges brought about by an ageing population through the fees and charges reform for public healthcare." The minister said among the 200,000 or so approved waiver cases so far, more than 130,000 were people aged between 65 and 74. DAB councillor Chan Hok-fung, meanwhile, said some private clinics have recently raised fees by HK$100 on average. He called on officials to assess how the public healthcare fee reforms have changed private sector prices as well as the impact on the medical expenses of families before considering adjustments in future. The minister said in response that the government did not have the relevant statistics and therefore he could not comment on whether the private sector has raised charges or not. Lo went on to say that the private sector is part of a free market that can set its own prices. Edited by Thomas McAlinden