Health Financing in Hong Kong: the Current Status

Healthcare financing has been on the political agenda around the world for more than a century (Starr 1982). As health systems worldwide grow both in their capacity to improve human well-being and in their cost, governments must increasingly pay attention to the financial aspects of these systems. Recently, healthcare financing has moved to the forefront of Hong Kong’s policy agenda (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, 2000; Hsiao, Yip et al., 1999), as it did in the 1980s and 1990s (Scott, 1985; Hay, 1992). As with many post-colonial economies, Hong Kong has established a dual medical economy in which the government has been significantly involved in both the funding and provision of health services mainly through tax financing, whereas the private sector operates in a loosely organised manner as individual clinics that dominate or populate the ambulatory care sector (Gauld, 1998).