Improving Hong Kong’s Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme: an overview and update

Hong Kong's Elderly Health Care Voucher (EHCV) Scheme was launched as a 3-year pilot scheme in 2009 to develop a long-term strategy to enhance primary care services for the elderly people. The elderly people were expected to choose private healthcare services, which would relieve some of the burden on public healthcare services such as general out-patient clinics and specialist out-patient clinics. At the start of the scheme, HK$250 in vouchers was given annually to each Hong Kong resident aged 70 years. After reviewing the scheme, the annual amounts were increased to HK$500 and HK$1000 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. In 2014, the amount was raised to HK$2000 and its cumulative could be carried forward up to HK$4000 for subsequent years.