ENG-2010 — Page 204

158 Health

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.

The first stage public consultation on healthcare reform 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, and the Government therefore needed to address the financing issue to maintain the sustainability of the healthcare system. However, the public had reservations about the mandatory healthcare supplementary financing options proposed in the consultation documents.

The Government has committed itself to increasing the health budget progressively from 15 per cent to 17 per cent of government's recurrent expenditure. Meanwhile, it has been taking forward healthcare service reform measures which have received wide public support, including enhancing primary care services, promoting public-private partnership in health care and developing a territory-wide electronic health record sharing system. We will also strengthen the public healthcare services safety net to provide better protection for patients requiring costly drugs and treatment.

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 government-regulated private service choices for the public;

• encourage greater use of private services so that public resources can be focused on the provision of priority services to take care of low-income families and under-privileged groups;

enable those who subscribe to health insurance to continue to be able to afford health insurance at older age so that they can stay insured and continue to use private healthcare services; and

• enhance transparency and competition in the private markets for value-for- money services and better consumer protection.