Health 165
March 2008, putting forward a package of inter-connected reform proposals on the following aspects and initiating the first-stage public consultation which lasted for three months:
(a) enhance primary care services;
(b) promote public-private partnership in health care;
(c) develop electronic health record sharing;
(d) strengthen the public healthcare safety net; and
(e) reform healthcare financing arrangement.
This first stage of the public consultation showed that the community generally recognised an imminent need for healthcare reform; that it had a clear consensus on the service reform proposals and considered the Government should act on them. The public in general agreed that the ageing population and rising medical costs would lead to a significant increase in medical expenditure. However, the public had reservations about the mandatory healthcare supplementary financing options proposed in the consultation documents.
Based on the first stage public consultation, the Government launched a three- month second stage public consultation on healthcare reform in October 2010. A voluntary and government-regulated Health Protection Scheme (HPS) was proposed with the following main objectives:
provide more choices with better protection to those who are able and willing to pay for private health insurance and private healthcare services;
• relieve public queues by enabling more people to choose private services and focus public health care on target service areas and population groups;
• better enable people with health insurance to stay insured and make premium payment at older age and meet their healthcare needs through private services; and
• enhance transparency, competition, value-for-money and consumer protection in private health insurance and private healthcare services.
Under the HPS, service providers (i.e. insurers and private healthcare providers) will be subject to government regulation, so as to enhance price transparency, increase competitiveness of service provision and ensure adequate consumer protection. The HPS prohibits providers from turning away subscribers; guarantees subscribers' option to renew their HPS membership; covers subscribers' pre-existing medical conditions subject to waiting period; requires providers to accept high-risk groups through a high-risk pool; requires providers to calculate insurance costs, including claims and expenses, in a transparent manner. These key features are designed to provide better protection and value-for-money services to consumers, as well as a choice for those consumers who are receiving private healthcare services and can afford them. Public subsidies and financial incentives will be considered for