Health Care Voucher
The Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme was initially launched on 1 January 2009 to try out a new concept of enhancing the provision of primary care service for the elderly aged 70 or above. The Scheme aims to supplement existing public healthcare services (e.g. General Out-patient and Specialist Out-patient Clinics) by providing financial incentive for elders to choose private healthcare services that best suit their health needs, including preventive care
The Government has lowered the eligibility age for the Scheme from 70 to 65 with effect from 1 July 2017.
In 2018 and 2019, apart from the annual voucher amount of $2,000, each eligible elder was also provided with an additional voucher amount of $1,000 on a one-off basis on 8 June 2018 and 26 June 2019 respectively while the accumulation limit of the vouchers was increased to $8,000 with effect from 26 June 2019 as a regular measure.
Besides, in view of the outcome of a review on the Scheme in 2019, a cap of $2,000 every two years on the voucher amount that can be spent by each elder on optometry services has been introduced with effect from 26 June 2019 to encourage the use of vouchers on different primary healthcare services.
Primary eye care examination provides a comprehensive eye examination for the elderly and delivers preventive and rehabilitative eye care services with respect to their refractive needs and ocular health management.
