TNAG-1606-FCO40-22121-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 163

3.

SPEECH BY THE SECRETARY FOR HEALTH & WELFARE

IN THE LEGISLAITVE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 25 MARCH 1987

Motor Vehicles Insurance

(Third Party Risks) (Amendment) Bill 1987

Sir,

I would like to thank the Leg Co Ad Hoc Group led

by Dr Ip for having studied this Bill so carefully and for

their support for it.

2.

I fully agree with Dr Ip that a cost recovery

scheme should not be abandoned simply because of

administrative difficulties, although I think that civil

servants are quite right to question the appropriateness

of such a scheme if the administrative cost exceeds the

revenue collected. In fact, as the Ad Hoc Group is

aware, the Administration has spent a great deal of time

and effort in exploring various ways of increasing the

viability of the hospital expenses recovery scheme.

However, as was pointed out when the Bill was introduced

into this Council on 30 July 1986, the main argument in

favour of repealing section 8 of the principal ordinance

is that we see no justification for requiring insurance

companies to meet the costs involved in treating traffic