Working Paper Series

Abstract: The Hong Kong healthcare system is well-known for its good performance and supreme efficiency, but it is facing the problem of long-term sustainability. The shift of epidemiological pattern, increasing medical costs, and the imbalanced demands between the public and private sectors have caused huge financial burden on public healthcare services. There is also resource misallocation in the public system. Therefore, the Hong Kong healthcare system may be unsustainable in the long term. Re-structuring of the healthcare system and health reform are the effective ways for improving healthcare sustainability. Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme, performance measurement system, public private partnership, and fare adjustment scheme can be considered and implemented into the healthcare system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of resource utilisation in future.