03.02.01.05. How are long-term care budgets allocated and dispersed, across levels of the long- term care system? Do budgets get dispersed through geographical areas? | Hong Kong SAR

03.02.01.05. How are long-term care budgets allocated and dispersed, across levels of the long- term care system? Do budgets get dispersed through geographical areas? | Hong Kong SAR

18 Aug 2022

LTC budgets are allocated to the Social Welfare Department and then dispersed across various service providers of subsidised services in different districts which deliver different types of services.

Subsidised community care services are provided predominantly by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receiving funding mostly from the Government, supplemented by donations and users fees. Residential care services are delivered by a mix of NGOs and private providers. The Government provides financial subsidies to NGOs through subvention with service quality monitored by the Social Welfare Department (Yuen, 2014). Despite the long standing government policy of “ageing in place”, there is a significant imbalance in government expenditures on residential care ($4,793.9 millions) and community care ($2,364.6 millions) according to the report in the 2017-2018 financial year (Legislative Council Secretariat, 2019, December 13).

References:

Legislative Council Secretariat. (2019, December 13). Government expenditure on the elderly. Retrieved from https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1920rt02-government-expenditure-on-the-elderly-20191213-e.pdf.

Yuen, P. P. (2014). Financing Health Care and Long-term Care in a Rapidly Ageing Context: Assessing Hong Kong’s Readiness. Public Policy and Administration, 17(1), 56-64.