“Healthy Greater Bay Area”: Integration and Reciprocity

September 2024

In February 2019, the State Council issued the Outline of the Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (“Outline”), which aims to transform the GBA into a world-class bay area and city cluster, one that is composed of high-quality living communities with equitable public services to enhance conditions for living, working, and tourism. The “Outline” also highlights the importance of finance industry, proposing incentives for insurance companies within the GBA to develop market-relevant medical insurance and other applicable financial products.

Exploring the intra-region integrated care (integrated healthcare, elderly care and medical insurance in GBA) is pivotal to the development of GBA, which addresses the imminent challenges posed by an aging population in Hong Kong and Macau, while converting the government’s financial pressure into Public-Private Partnership (PPP) opportunities within the GBA; as well as to add value in a variety of green, low-carbon, service-oriented economies, such as medical tourism, meditation, hospitality, catering and leisure. This paper analysis the development status and challenges of intra-region integrated care, and proposes levers to unlock the integration potential in the future.