Policy Address

Improving Healthcare for the Elderly

195. To alleviate the burden of medical expenses on elderly persons and their families and to enhance health promotion and primary care services, the Government proposes to lower the eligibility age for the Elderly Health Care Vouchers from 70 to 65, so that about 400 000 more elderly persons will receive $2,000 a year to purchase private primary care services. In addition, we will extend the fee waiver for public hospital and clinic services to cover the older OALA recipients with more financial needs, i.e. those aged 75 or above with assets not exceeding $144,000 for elderly singletons or $218,000 for elderly couples, benefiting 140 000 elderly persons. We will also provide free or subsidised 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine under the Government Vaccination Programme and the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme respectively.

196. We will increase the recurrent provision for the Hospital Authority (HA) by $2 billion annually from the next financial year onwards to continue to strengthen healthcare services for the elderly and other patients, such as chronic disease management, rehabilitation support and service enhancement by HA’s Community Geriatric Assessment Teams for terminally ill patients living in residential care homes for the elderly.

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