Opinion / Zou Hanru
Giving birth to a thorny issue
By Zou Hanru (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-05 07:16
Government authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
(SAR) are grappling to find an answer to an influx of mainland women
giving birth in the city, which is said to be draining public hospital
maternity services.
But much to their dismay, they have yet to come up with a foolproof
solution simply because the problem is far more complex than it appears
to be.
Some data from previous years may give readers a rough idea of the exent
of the problem. In 2005, Hong Kong recorded 57,100 births, with mainland
women accounting for 19,538 of them. More than 12,000 babies were born to
non-resident parents in the first nine months of 2006, a 20-fold increase
over 2001.
Non-residents left behind millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills.
Over the past five years, outstanding bills have risen to more than
HK$200 million ($26 million), a fair chunk of it owed by mainland mothers.
Public discontent has prompted the government to search for a solution.
Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee has warned that pregnant mainland
women could be denied entry to Hong Kong if they used their visits for
purposes other than tourism.
The Hong Kong Hospital Authority has, on its part, come up with a series
of financial measures to discourage mainlanders from giving birth in the
city. Under the new arrangement, non-resident women can now be charged up
to HK$48,000 in hospital fees, instead of the earlier HK$20,000 fee.
Whether or not these and other measures would work is the subject of an
ongoing debate. But to get the right answers, we would have to take a
closer look at what exactly makes mainland women choose Hong Kong as the
birthplace for their children.
The Basic Law, the constitutional document of China's most affluent city,
grants right of abode to Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong. Once these
children become Hong Kong residents, they are eligible for benefits
ranging from medical care and social security to education. These are the
kinds of public services that have long been the targets of criticism on
the mainland.
But the disparity in the standards of public services in the two places
can be leveled overnight simply by giving birth to a child in Hong Kong.
And that perhaps is the greatest attraction for mainlanders. In a broader
perspective, the mainland's one-child policy could also be a factor.
Those desperate to have a second, or even a third, child prefer footing a
higher medical bill in Hong Kong to paying a fine on the mainland. When
the incentives are so tempting, no technical measure could be more
effective than tackling the problem at its legal root.
Back in 2001, the SAR government did try that by requesting the National
People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), the only authority that can
interpret the Basic Law, to explain the legislative intent of the
relevant article that granted the right of abode to "Chinese citizens
born in Hong Kong".
"Chinese citizens", the NPCSC clarified, are those whose fathers or
mothers must have been lawfully settled or have the right of abode in
Hong Kong at the time of their birth or at any later time.
By this account, mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong would have
been just like any other consumers, paying for using the city's medical
services. Hence, their offspring would not be entitled to the right of
abode.
But the same year, the city's Court of Final Appeal ruled that Chinese
citizens born in Hong Kong had the right of abode, regardless of whether
their parents had settled in Hong Kong or possessed the right of abode.
Last month, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow flew to
Beijing to seek help. But there is little mainland authorities can do
when it is perfectly legal for pregnant women to travel overseas to give
birth.
Email: zouhr@chinadaily.com.hk
(China Daily 01/05/2007 page10)
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