Press Releases

Medical fee waiver mechanism to be further revised

The Government today (March 18) announced further changes to the medical fee waiver mechanism by relaxing the asset limit for families with elderly members and the maximum validity period of the waiver for the chronically ill who have difficulty with paying medical fees.

The Government put forth a revised medical fee waiver mechanism in late February. Under the revised mechanism, all recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance will continue to be waived all medical fees. In addition, the enhanced mechanism will also assist the vulnerable groups and those who are not recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance.

Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, undertook to consider relaxing the asset limit for families with elderly members and lengthening the validity of waiver granted to chronic patients at the motion debate on medical fee waiver mechanism in the Legislative Council last week (March 12).

A spokesman of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said: "After considering suggestions from the social service sector and legislative councillors as well as views from deputations at a Legislative Council meeting on February 24, we have decided to relax the asset limit for a singleton elderly household from $80,000 to $150,000.

"Under the original proposal, the asset limit for a doubleton elderly household would be $160,000. That for a four-person household with two elderly members would be $220,000. As a result of our latest decision, such limits will be relaxed to $300,000 and $360,000 respectively. "

Taking into account the fact that most elderly citizens will no longer earn any income after retirement and have to depend on their personal savings or other family members, the Government has further revised the asset limit so that households with elderly members will enjoy a higher asset limit than those without.

On suggestions that all elderly patients aged 65 or above should be given automatic half or full fee waiver, the spokesman said the Government was not in a position to grant automatic waiver to all elders. "Resources are limited. The Hospital Authority is already facing a deficit of about $220m in 2002/03. We hope the public will understand that we have to channel our limited resource to the most vulnerable," he said.

"The revised medical fee waiver mechanism is expected to handle more than 200,000 waiver cases a year. The total amount of medical fees waived for recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and other vulnerable groups who are not such recipients amount to no less than $260 million per year," he added.

On the waiver certificates granted to chronic patients, the spokesman said the validity period could be extended from the originally proposed six months up to 12 months when judged by the medical social workers as appropriate.

"We have also made the system more user-friendly by allowing the waiver not only good for use at the institution from which the patient obtains it, but also good for use at other public institutions of the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health that offer the same service," he said.

As a general rule under the revised mechanism, a patient will be eligible to apply for a waiver for his medical expenditure at the public sector if the patient's monthly household income does not exceed 75 per cent of the Median Monthly Domestic Household Income (MMDHI) applicable to the patient's household size, and if the patient's household asset is within a stipulated limit.

Patients whose monthly household income are approximately at the level of 50 per cent or below of the MMDHI and pass the asset limit test will be considered for full waiving of their medical fees at public clinics/hospitals.

For patients whose monthly household income are between 50 per cent to 75 per cent of the MMDHI applicable to their household size and pass the asset limit test, medical social workers will consider their applications on a case-by-case basis.

Apart from the income and asset of the household, all other relevant factors will be taken into account. "We will ensure that the need of chronic patients using public medical services frequently will be an important consideration. Other factors such as the patients' family problems will also be considered," the spokesman said.

To protect those patients who have little asset except their residential property, the residential property owned and occupied by the patient's household will not count towards this asset limit.

The spokesman added: "It has always been the Government's fundamental philosophy that no one will be denied adequate medical care due to lack of means.

"We believe that the revised waiver mechanism, especially after the latest changes, will effectively provide the protection that vulnerable groups need.

"We will regularly review the operation of the revised mechanism after its implementation to ensure smooth service delivery and that the administrative procedures are efficient and convenient to the users."

End/Tuesday, March 18, 2003
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