The government announced yesterday that beneficiaries can start using the 2025 round of health e-vouchers, the amount of which has been increased to 700 patacas from 600 patacas, up by 16.6 percent, on June 1.
The Executive Council made the announcement in a statement yesterday, which said that the government’s top advisory body has completed its discussion of the administrative regulation on the new 2025 round of the government’s annual medical subsidy programme.
The amount of the annual health vouchers for each recipient was 500 patacas when the programme was launched in 2009. The amount was raised to 600 patacas in 2013, and it has now been increased to 700 patacas. The scheme only benefits permanent local residents.
The 100-pataca increase in the amount of the health vouchers was first announced by Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai last month when he delivered his 2025 Policy Address to the Legislative Assembly (AL).
Sticking to the same modus operandi as in the past several years, the 2025 round of health e-vouchers will be valid for two years, because of which beneficiaries can use their health e-vouchers until May 31, 2027.
Govt to spend 519 million patacas
With the 100-pataca increase in the amount for each beneficiary, according to yesterday’s statement, the government expects to spend 519 million patacas on the new 2025 round of health e-vouchers.
The government said last year that the 2024 round was budgeted at 441 million patacas.
As in the 2024 round, the 2025 round of health e-vouchers can also be used at eligible clinics in Hengqin, the statement said.
The medical subsidy programme’s 2024 round extended the use of health vouchers to the Guangdong-Macau In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin for the first time.
In Macau, the health e-vouchers are only valid for consultations and treatments offered by health professionals in the private sector not subsidised by the local government.
The statement noted that health professionals from Macau eligible to provide health services in the mainland who have joined Macau’s medical subsidy programme may also accept the Macau government-issued health e-vouchers when they are providing consultations and treatments in eligible clinics in Hengqin.
Only clinics in Hengqin established by Macau residents who hold, individually or jointly, shares in the capital are covered by the Macau government’s medical subsidy programme, the statement noted.
In Macau, beneficiaries can use their health e-vouchers either with their physical ID card or their e-ID card displayed on the Macau government’s Macao One Account e-government app.
In Hengqin, however, beneficiaries can only use their health e-vouchers with their e-ID card displayed on the Macao One Account app, the statement said.
As previously, the health e-vouchers are fully or partly transferable to the beneficiaries’ spouse, parents or children provided that they are permanent residents.
A man checks his smartphone yesterday while walking past a clinic on Travessa de S. Domingos, an alley running between Largo do Senado, the city’s main square, and Largo da Sé, where the city’s Catholic Cathedral is located. – Photo: Tony Wong
