The government yesterday abandoned its quest to introduce any time soon a 'personal health care reserve' scheme requiring employee contributions, saying mandatory funding options lacked public support.
Such a scheme, which would require employees to contribute 3 per cent to 5 per cent of their income to fund medical insurance and a medical savings reserve they could tap after retirement, has until now been the government's preferred solution.
Any reforms would, for now, involve voluntary payments, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said, and the government was seeking only 'supplementary financing' for health care.
He also announced that the launch of a second round of public consultation on options for financing reform was being delayed until late this year because of the financial crisis. The government had previously said a consultation paper would be issued in the first half of the year.
'Financing reform will be step by step ... While we still envisage the long-term solution to sustainable financing rests with some form of mandatory solution, we do not believe the community is ready for mandatory financing at this time,' Dr Chow said.
A public consultation last year, and an opinion poll, on the government's six financing options found a majority of people opposed paying more taxes or any scheme requiring mandatory contributions.
