On 16 January 2017, the Legislative Council’s Panel on Health Services discussed the Consultation Report on Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) and the Food and Health Bureau’s (FHB) proposed way forward. In essence, the latest VHIS will:
● include Standard Plan (meeting all 10 minimum requirements in a fixed template) and Flexi Plan (meeting / exceeding the minimum requirements without a fixed product template)
● allow insurers to sell / continue to sell non-VHIS compliant products, which, however, will not be eligible for tax incentive;
● be launched through a guidance note stipulated by the future Independent Insurance Authority (IIA) and a set of practice guidelines issued by the FHB;
● resolve claims disputes through the Insurance Claims Complaints Bureau.
Industry’s representatives have appeared on different media platforms to reaffirm our commitment to working with all stakeholders to launch a commercially sustainable health insurance scheme for the good of Hong Kong.
Independent Insurance Authority
28 December 2016 marked the first anniversary of the IIA. We sent the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) a list of action items relating to the setting up of the IIA which remain outstanding. They include the drafting of various by-laws, codes and guidelines, definition of regulated activities of salaried staff as well as operational issues relating to the transition from Self-regulatory Organisations to IIA.
Exchange with Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
According to the FHB, they will engage a consultant to work on the benefit levels, standard policy wordings and practice guidelines. They expect to complete the entire exercise and seek the support of the Legislative Council in offering tax incentive by early 2018.
We will meet the FHB next month to iron out the implementation details, including the regulatory oversight, approval process, drafting of guidelines, setting of benefit levels, medical cost transparency, etc. We will keep you posted on the progress in due course.
The Governing Committee invited Professor the Hon K C Chan and the Hon K P Chan for an informal exchange last week. We covered a range of subjects including transition to the new IIA, the proposed Holistic Consumer Protection Framework, Risk-based Capital, FinTech / InsurTech, VHIS, proposed license fee for MPF intermediaries, Hong Kong as Asia’s marine insurance hub and talent development for the insurance industry.
At the meeting with the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) in mid-January 2017, we explored ways to apply their latest cyber security technology to support members’ business operations. More discussion will be conducted on the modus operandi and business model. We plan to arrange a briefing to
bring Members up to speed on this and ascertain the needs of Members before proceeding further.
I am delighted to report that the HKFI Smart Union ( 保聯同學會) Facebook Fan Page has so far accumulated close to 16,000 fans / followers and the number is growing. We are encouraged by the remarkable engagement with an impressive reach of over 2.5M. This shows that our fans are finding the feeds useful and relevant to their daily lives and we will continue to work hard to provide timely and interesting posts.
Green Power Hike HKFI Cup 2017
The HKFI co-hosted a workshop with EY at the above conference on 17 January 2017. Six prominent panelists shared their insights on the topic of “Innovation creating value in the insurance industry”. More than 300 audience joined the interactive panel discussion and found the session stimulating and rewarding.
The annual fund-raising walkathon Green Power Hike was successfully completed on 21 January 2017. The HKFI Cup has been held for 13 consecutive years and we have 47 teams from the insurance industry joining this year. Congratulations to Manulife for winning all three races, i.e. 50 Km, 25 Km and 10 Km. With the generous support from participating companies, the industry raised a total of HK$564,000 in 2017 to help funding projects on environmental education.
Chinese New Year Greetings
We wish you all a Healthy and Prosperous Year of the Rooster!
Membership News
Change of Authorized Representative
● Friends Provident International Limited (Life Member) - Mr Charles William Barrows
● Wing Lung Insurance Company Limited (General Member) - Mr Chen Zhaonan
HKFI Membership
As at 26 Jan 2017, the HKFI has 90 General Insurance Members and 50 Life Insurance Members.
Ronnie Ng HKFI Chairman