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Hong Kong domestic health spending: financial years 1989/90 to 2008/09.

This report presents the latest estimates of Hong Kong domestic health spending for financial years 1989/90 to 2008/09, cross-stratified and categorised by financing source, provider and function. Total expenditure on health (TEH) was HK$84,391 million in financial year 2008/09, which represents an increase of HK$5030 million or 6.3% over the preceding year. Amid the financial tsunami in late 2008, TEH grew faster relative to gross domestic product (GDP) leading to a marked increase as a percentage of GDP from 4.8% in 2007/08 to 5.1% in 2008/09. During the period 1989/90 to 2008/09, TEH per capita (at constant 2009 prices) grew at an average annual rate of 4.9%, which was faster than that of per capita GDP by 2.0 percentage points. 6.4% when compared with 2007/08, reaching HK$41 257 million and HK$43 134 million, respectively. Consequently, public and private shares of total health expenditure remained the same in the 2 years at 48.9% and 51.1%, respectively. Regarding private spending, the most important source of health financing was out-of-pocket payments by households (35.4% of TEH), followed by employer-provided group medical benefits (7.5%) and private insurance (6.4%). During the period, a growing number of households (mostly in middle to high-income groups) subscribed to pre-payment plans for financing health care. As such, private insurance has taken on an increasingly important role for financing private spending. Of the HK$84 391 million total health expenditure in 2008/09, current expenditure comprised HK$81 186 million (96.2%), whereas HK$3206 million (3.8%) was for capital expenses (ie investment in medical facilities). Analysed by health care function, services for curative care accounted for the largest share of total health spending (66.1%), which was made up of ambulatory services (32.8%), in-patient curative care (28.8%), day patient hospital services (3.9%) and home care (0.5%). Notwithstanding the small share of total spending for day patient hospital services, there was an increasing trend over the period 1989/90 to 2008/09, likely as a result of policy directives to shift the emphasis from inpatient to day patient care. 1989/90 to 46.8% in 2002/03 and then dropped slightly to 43.1% in 2007/08, which was primarily driven by reduced expenditure of Hospital Authority. Compared with the preceding year, expenditure on hospitals increased by HK$2935 million in 2008/09, whereas the corresponding increase for providers of ambulatory health care was only HK$919 million. As a result, the hospital share rebounded a little to 44.0% of total health spending, whereas that of providers of ambulatory health care dropped to 29.1%. Without taking into account capital expenses (ie investment in medical facilities), public current expenditure on health amounted to HK$39 301 million (48.4% of total current expenditure) in 2008/09 with the remaining HK$41 885 million made up from private sources. Public current expenditure was mostly incurred at hospitals (76.1%), whereas private current expenditure was mostly incurred at providers of ambulatory health care (48.9%). Although both public and private spending were mostly expended on personal health care services and goods (91.8% of total current spending), the patterns of distribution among functional categories differed. Public expenditure was targeted at in-patient care (51.8%) and substantially less on out-patient care (25.1%). In comparison, private spending was mostly concentrated on out-patient care (42.6%), whereas in-patient care (23.4%) and medical goods outside the patient care setting (22.5%) accounted for the majority of the remaining share. Compared to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, Hong Kong has devoted a relatively low percentage of GDP to health care in the last decade. As a share of total spending, public funding (either general government revenue or social security funds) in Hong Kong was also lower than that in most economies with comparable economic development and public revenue collection base.