Hong Kong recorded a current health expenditure (CHE) of $251.207 billion in 2023-24, an 8.6% increase compared with the previous year’s figure (excluding identified COVID-19 expenditure), the Health Bureau said today.

Releasing Hong Kong’s Domestic Health Accounts (DHA) 2023-24, the bureau noted that the CHE as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 8.3%, and the CHE per capita was $33,334 during the period.

Public fund on healthcare accounted for 51.8% of the CHE in 2023-24, or 4.3% as a GDP percentage, which was 1.5 times of the 2.9% recorded 10 years ago in 2013-14.

Among other regions and economies with comparable shares of elderly population, Hong Kong is one of the places with the lowest public expenditure expressed in GDP percentage, the bureau noted.

In 2023-24, primary healthcare expenditure accounted for 29.3% of the city’s CHE, the highest percentage in the past decade, demonstrating the Government’s efforts to promote primary healthcare development are bearing fruit.

For private healthcare expenditure, it accounted for 48.2% of the CHE in Hong Kong or 4% as a percentage of GDP during the same period.

As for private expenditure on secondary and tertiary healthcare, the percentage share of health insurance schemes, including privately purchased as well as employer-based insurance schemes, in private expenditure increased from 33.4% to 44.8% in the past decade from 2013-14 to 2023-24.

This is an indicator that the health insurance scheme has become an increasingly important funding source for private healthcare services, the bureau added.

Specifically, by the end of 2024, the number of policies under the government-launched Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme has reached 1.428 million, which is estimated to account for approximately one-third of Hong Kong's individual indemnity hospital insurance market.

To enhance the sustainability of Hong Kong’s healthcare system, the Government is comprehensively deepening the healthcare system reform, including advancing primary healthcare development to shift the emphasis of the healthcare system from treatment-oriented to prevention-focused.

It is also taking forward the fees and charges reform for public healthcare, with a view to optimising the use of healthcare resources amidst the mounting pressure on public hospitals.