HONG KONG, Jan. 31 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Mercer Human Resource Consulting Hong Kong started the Health & Welfare Survey since 1987 on the medical and insurance benefits provided by employers. This year, they have updated the survey covering 539 companies with over 102,000 employees.
Some of the key findings of the Hong Kong Health & Welfare Survey are:
-- The percentages of employers providing medical benefits included in
this year survey are higher than the corresponding percentages
revealed in the result in the 2005 survey results. The percentage
increase varies from 1% to 7% depending on type of benefit cover.
-- Basic hospitalization and outpatient benefits are the most prevalent
benefits provided by survey participants, while group disability
income and critical illness benefits continue to be the least common
benefits offered by employers.
-- A number of participants expressed concern about the rising
healthcare cost; however 53% of them have not taken any cost control
measures.
"In view of the growing requests from our clients for group dental benefits data, we have added more information on the survey participants' group dental benefits in this year's survey," said Margie Wong, Director of Health & Benefit Business.
To help employers evaluate their Defined Contribution (DC) retirement scheme against important retirement benchmarks in the market, Mercer Human Resource Consulting also conducted the Mercer 2006 Hong Kong DC Scheme Survey at the end of 2006.
Jennifer Chee, Director, Retirement Consulting said, "The preferred scheme vehicle of the survey participants appears to be largely dependent on employer size. Smaller employers use the Mandatory Provident fund ("MPF") scheme for the provision of retirement benefits to their employees whilst the larger employers' schemes are segregated trust arrangements set up under the Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance ("ORSO"). Most of the survey participants provided benefits in excess of the MPF mandatory benefits."
The survey collected information from companies in relation to their scheme design and their actual experience of services and fees offered by their existing retirement scheme service providers. A total of 73 companies across a broad spectrum of industries contributed information for the survey. Participants were asked to provide information on the main DC retirement scheme open to their new employees.
In the area of scheme governance, the survey responses would suggest that quite a number of participants are still working on setting up a formal governance framework for their retirement scheme.
Mercer Human Resource Consulting
Mercer Human Resource Consulting is a global leader for HR and related financial advice and services, with more than 15,000 employees serving clients from more than 180 cities and 42 countries and territories worldwide. In Asia, we have 19 offices across 11 countries and territories. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., which lists its stock (ticker symbol: MMC) on the New York, Chicago and London stock exchanges. For more information, visit mercerHR.com .
Contact:
Jennifer Chee
Tel: +852-2115-3303
Email: jennifer.chee@mercer.com
Margie Wong
Tel: +852-2115-3376
Email: margie.wong@mercer.com
