Mainland-HK ties challenged by cross-border births

Timeline:

2005

Since 2005, NEPs (including mainland residents) receiving public healthcare services have been required to pay for service charges determined on a cost-recovery basis. Then NEPs were required to pay HK$20,000.

Feb 1, 2007

The Hospital Authority implemented new obstetric services arrangements for NEPs on Feb 1, 2007. The new arrangements include the setting up of a booking system at public hospitals for the use of obstetrics services and the increase in charges for NEPs to HK$39,000 for a three-day package plus examination with reservation and HK$48,000 without reservation.

Oct 8, 2009

The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong announced that all local public hospitals will stop its booking service for mainland pregnant women from Oct 9 to the end of December, aimed at reserving beds for local residents during the expected birth peak, which normally appears at the end of each year.

Jan 1, 2010

The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong lifted the ban on booking service in public hospitals on Jan 1, 2010, and expressed its welcome to mainland expectant mothers.

April 8, 2011

The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong again suspended the booking service for mainland pregnant women in public hospitals until the end of 2011.

Last year, for the first time, the government set a cap on the number of mainland mothers to be given access to services, after consultation with the HA and private hospitals. The cap was cut back again for 2012, to 35,000.

March 4, 2012

Anthony T Y WU, chairman of the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong, said the region will curb the number of mainland pregnant women giving birth in Hong Kong, to around 35,000.

April 25, 2012

York Chow Yat-ngok, secretary of the Food and Health Bureau of Hong Kong, announced that maternity clinics in the special administrative region will be banned from accepting "double negative" pregnant women (neither parent is a permanent Hong Kong resident) in 2013, while agreeing to allow mainland women married to Hong Kong people to give birth at some local private hospitals

May 12, 2012

The Hospital Authority raised the obstetrics service fee for non-local pregnant women without advanced reservation, from HK$48,000 to HK$90,000, in public hospitals.

Solution proposals

Improve the welfare in Chinese mainland.

Landmark event

A local court sentenced a mainland intermediary to 10 months in prison in Hong Kong for violating her condition of stay and making false statements to immigration officers on Feb 13, 2012. This was the first time a local court put behind bars a mainland "birth agent".