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Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Hong Kong authorities to enhance healthcare vouchers for elderly, including allowing couples to share balances from July

  • Measure introduced to encourage couples to use full amount allocated to them as unspent balance hits HK$4 billion in 2022
  • Elderly will also get an extra $500 added to their accounts when they spend $1,000, effectively increasing the subsidy to $2,500

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Hong Kong authorities reveal the details of enhancements to elderly healthcare vouchers. Photo: Felix Wong
Emily Hung
Elderly couples in Hong Kong will be allowed to share their HK$2,000 (US$255) healthcare vouchers from July as part of an enhancement of the welfare scheme, authorities revealed.
First launched in 2009, the scheme provides each elderly person aged 65 or above with a HK$2,000 voucher to pay for primary healthcare services in the private sector.

In a paper submitted to the city’s legislature, the Health Bureau outlined four measures to enhance the scheme.

As of May 2023, more than 11,600 healthcare providers have registered with the scheme. Photo: Edmond So
As of May 2023, more than 11,600 healthcare providers have registered with the scheme. Photo: Edmond So

“Currently, the healthcare voucher scheme does not have any measures to incentivise the use of the vouchers for specific purporses, and any mechanism to monitor the relevant services,” the paper said.

“Therefore, it could not effectively achieve the policy objective of strengthening the disease prevention and health management of the elderly.”

As of May 2023, more than 11,600 healthcare providers have registered with the scheme, and close to 1.56 million elderly have used the vouchers, accounting for 97 per cent of the total eligible population.

In 2022, the amount of vouchers claimed stood at around HK$2.5 billion, a decrease from HK$2.8 billion in 2018.

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