Hong Kong: Government might give in to insurers in VHIS debate
Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2015
The government might be willing to make concessions to the insurance industry and tweak parts of its health care reform, allowing insurers to offer cheaper indemnity hospital insurance products that exclude coverage of pre-existing conditions, according to a report by the South China Morning Post which cited unnamed government sources.
This, if true, would indicate that the Health and Food bureau, which is spearheading the reform, has taken stock of the concerns voiced by the industry in recent months over certain parameters of the reform known as the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS).
The government had initially sent shockwaves across the life insurance industry when it initially announced that all indemnity hospital insurance plans would have to meet a list of 12 requirements including coverage of pre-existing conditions, preventing insurers to offer any other products alongside the regulated products.
The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers has in recent months campaigned for the right for insurers to offer insurance products alongside the newly regulated products, arguing that failing to do so would deprive policyholders of choice and translate into much higher premiums that many might not be able to afford. This, they argued, would only drive policyholders away from the private sector and into the arms of an overcrowded public health sector which this very government reform was designed to bring relief to.