**********************************************************
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session in the Legislative Council Building today (July 11):
Reporter: (About regulating private health insurance)
Secretary for Food and Health: The essence of regulating insurance, particularly in medical insurance, is to ensure that there is transparency in the use of the collected premium, particularly on how it is being distributed among different users and patients, and how much of it is actually being used on administration and so on. We feel that the future insurance authority would have to gather all these data and information from insurance companies, private hospitals and private doctors. So we know exactly how the money is being spent, so that we can have a judgement and also analysis every year. We can ensure the premium would not escalate unnecessarily and also it would be set at a reasonable level.
Reporter: (About regulating private health insurance)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think the simple answer is if we do not do anything, the private sector would still benefit and benefit without any control. So I think it is important for us to set up certain regulations for them. But at the same time, we still leave certain freedom and certain freedom of choice for consumers and patients to have a choice of hospitals and doctors. Our scheme would ensure that those people, most likely the middle class with fixed income, would have the protection as they desired so that when they go into hospital, they do not worry there would be a lot of surcharges they have to pay.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, July 11, 2011
Issued at HKT 12:35
NNNN
