Health voucher set to cover Bay Area

Hong Kong’s medical coverage for the elderly, the Health Care Voucher, will be extended to meet medical expenses incurred in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee revealed on Monday.

The health chief did not provide any timetable for the practice or list which Bay Area hospitals would accept the vouchers, saying it takes time to turn thoughts into reality.

Allowing voucher use in the Bay Area entailed addressing a series of problems — such as computer-program support and availability of qualified human resources — and required talks with mainland authorities.

In an interview with Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, Chan affirmed her bureau would work on expanding the voucher service to the Bay Area despite not knowing how long this would take.

The bureau was determined to press ahead following the successful launch of the voucher scheme in the University of Hong KongShenzhen Hospital in Shenzhen.

The special administrative region government provides an annual HK$2,000 in vouchers to Hong Kong residents who are aged 65 or above. Each eligible elderly person also received an additional one-off HK$1,000 voucher on June 8 this year.

The voucher can be used for private healthcare services in the city and supplements the existing public medical service.

In 2015, the government made the first attempt to apply health care vouchers on the mainland through a pilot scheme at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital.

By the end of last year 2,100 eligible elderly people had used the voucher at HKU-SZ Hospital, spending about HK$3.86 million, according to Department of Health data.

Welcoming the government’s actions, Vice-President of the Hong Kong Medical Association Ho Chung-ping said the intention and direction of these measures was good.