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Where does the money come from?

2022-05-03T23:13:12.322Z


Medical care has always been one of the livelihood issues that citizens are most concerned about. The problems of medical service and quality that everyone sees are often only symptomatic. If we only insist on entanglement on the surface of the problem, it will end up delaying the solution of the problem.


Medical care has always been one of the livelihood issues that citizens are most concerned about.

The problems of medical service and quality that everyone sees are often only symptomatic. If we only insist on entanglement on the surface of the problem, it will end up delaying the solution of the problem.

For example, the public healthcare system is under heavy load and the waiting time for specialist outpatient clinics is long. What is the focus of the problem?

Are Hong Kong people in particular demand?

Is the HA service inefficient?

Public-private imbalance?

To understand the problem, start with an objective analysis.


Written by: Dr. Li Xia Yin, Director of Strategic Development, Hospital Authority


The government regularly publishes the Domestic Health Account, which is a must-read for medical administrators.

It systematically and accurately depicts the flow of public and private parts of an economy's total health care spending.

The World Health Organization pointed out that the main purpose of the development of the health expenditure account is to strengthen the governance and decision-making of the medical system.

Let's look at the situation in Hong Kong.

In 2019-20, the total local healthcare expenditure was HK$189.624 billion, with an average annual expenditure of HK$25,258 per person.

According to the Census and Statistics Department, the median monthly income of Hong Kong people in May-June 2020 was $18,400.

That is to say, the average annual expenditure per person on health care is 37% more than the monthly income of half of Hong Kong people, accounting for 11.4% of their total annual income.

Who will pay for these medical expenses?

About 53% of total health care expenditure is public expenditure, that is, paid by the government, 30% is paid by households (also known as user out-of-pocket costs), and only 16% is through privately purchased insurance plans and employers Provided insurance plan pays.

It is worrying that a higher proportion of payments come from out-of-pocket payments by households.

It is also understandable that citizens with less economical income cannot afford the medical expenses actually paid by their households, so they can only rely on public medical services, which also leads to long waiting times for public medical services.

When the economy is in a downturn, who will pay for this expense?

Usually at that time, citizens can only rely on the government, and the government's ability to bear must be hit.

Whether public or private, about 60% of spending on inpatient and outpatient care is spent on inpatient and outpatient care, and the rest is usually spent on rehabilitative care or medical supplies.

A surprising 7% of public spending and 0.4% of private spending are spent on preventive care, which shows that we are not taking enough care of our health and our future.

If you want to reform medical services, you must first change the current medical financing plan. No government can rely on income to support the overall medical expenses in the long term. The actual payment of households only allows people with financial ability to receive services, creating more social unequal.

So in any case, the government must re-study universal medical insurance, in order to seek long-term medical development.

"Hong Kong 01" "01 Clinic", in cooperation with the Hospital Authority, publishes a column "Garden Tour" written by medical staff every Wednesday.

Apricot Forest.



"Xinglin" comes from the story of Dong Feng, a famous doctor in the Three Kingdoms period. Later generations praised medical care as "Xinglin". Four people from Xinglin from the Hospital Authority led the garden to visit Xinglin Grand View Garden. A little bit of reason.


Looking at the epidemic from history

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-05-03

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