More Hong Kong employees are seeking to have minor day procedures covered under the inpatient services of their group medical insurance, a joint study has found, while projecting a near 15 per cent increase in employers’ premiums this year.
The findings, published in the Hong Kong Employee Medical Insurance Index, were released on Thursday by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in collaboration with corporate employee benefits and MPF consultancy GUM.
The index, which tracks data from Hong Kong’s group medical insurance market between 2006 and the second quarter of 2025, showed that minor day procedures such as wart removal, toenail treatments and endoscopy have become increasingly popular.
“[The minor day procedures] could apportion the risk pool originally set up for serious illness such as cancer,” GUM CEO Gloria Siu warned, adding that this would in turn drive up the cost of serious illness cover and consequently insurance premiums.
According to the report, use of inpatient plans – which cover minor day procedures and surgeries requiring hospitalisation – rose sharply, with the utilisation index climbing 13.9 per cent from 273 in 2024 to 311 in the second quarter of 2025.
The inpatient plan utilisation index measures the number of procedures per insured person, using 2006 levels as a reference point.
