Our Hong Kong Foundation puts forward package of proposals to tackle increasing pressure on health services as population ages
EMILY.TSANG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Tuesday, 13 December, 2016, 7:15pm
Professor Yeoh Eng-kiong outlines the Our Hong Kong Foundation proposals. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
All low-income people aged above 45 should be given a one-off HK$1,000 voucher for health screening to prevent chronic diseases and minimise future medical and social costs, a think tank has suggested.
The health voucher scheme, which is expected to cost around $580 million, is among a series of measures suggested by the Our Hong Kong Foundation to tackle a potential huge burden resulting from a rapidly ageing population.
Cost of caring for Hong Kong’s elderly to rise by billions
An annual subsidy of HK$3,040 should also be given to low-income patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes so they can consult private doctors.
The proposal will cost the public at least HK$250 million a year just to cover hypertension, but the move will free up valuable public sector resources.
The risk of poorer families developing chronic diseases is 1.4 times higher than families living above the poverty line, according to the study.
Professor Yeoh Eng-kiong, Chinese University's director of public health and primary care and a former health minister, said the expenditure on both schemes should be seen as an investment to prevent patients from developing serious complications which will be more costly to treat in future.
Other suggestions in the study included setting up a network to strengthen care for the elderly, building more smart facilities for older people, redefining the retirement age and establishing insurance for long-term health care.
New ideas needed to help Hong Kong elderly cope with their health problems
“Ageing is not a problem if we enable society to age in a healthy way,” Yeoh said. “[The proposed measures] will unleash the potential of our older generation, thus maximising social capital. We are therefore able to turn challenges arising from ageing into opportunities.”
“Rather than improve the health of the population, we also need to engage older people to participate and contribute to society. We need to consider innovative policies to increase labour productivity and boost participation by older workers.”
The proposals unveiled on Tuesday highlight the urgent need for the city to tackle age-related health care spending, which is expected to rise to 6 per cent of GDP in 2050 – about 1 percentage point higher than in 2005.
By 2064, the medium age of the population is expected to reach 53.3 years, with 33 per cent of the city’s population being 65 years or older – up from 15 per cent in 2014.
Yeoh said health screening should be offered to all persons aged 45 or above, as it is the age when patients usually start to develop chronic diseases. The risk for people in this group being diagnosed with at least one chronic disease is six times higher than for younger people.
Those considered to be at high risk should be closely monitored by doctors, who should give advice on disease prevention and leading a healthy lifestyle.
Yeoh said 70 per cent of chronic diseases could be prevented through lifestyle changes.
The foundation said the HK$3,040 subsidy should initially be given annually to patients with hypertension and diabetes as the conditions would cause complications if not properly handled at an earlier stage. The scheme could later be expanded to cover heart disease.
The study estimated that the cost of treating these three kinds of diseases would more than double by 2056 if nothing is done to prevent them.
“These people are only targeted as a start. The government should continue to study the issue to see how to bring this forward,” Yeoh said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2054251/hong-kong-foundation-proposes-subsidies-health
