香港人社保资源趋近饱和 政府有意安排去内地养老

香港设计出了一个应对老龄人口相关费用日益上涨以及土地短缺问题的新方法：将部分老龄人口输出到边境线另一边的中国内地。

Hong Kong has come up with a novel way to deal with the rising costs of an ageing population and a shortage of land: export some of its elderly across the border to Chinese mainland.

作为中国领土一部分的香港并不是唯一正在寻求老龄化应对之策的地区，老龄化给日本、新加坡、韩国以及中国内地等亚洲地区的各国政府都造成了沉重负担。

The Chinese territory is not alone in looking at ways to deal with a problem that is taxing governments across Asia from Japan to Singapore, South Korea and Chinese mainland itself.

但香港的局部解决方案产生的背景是，香港民众与他们内地近邻之间的关系愈发紧张。

But its partial solution comes against a backdrop of growing hostility between the people of Hong Kong and their close neighbours.

近年来，香港的社会活动人士公开指责“内地产妇占用了产房病床，这类产妇过境来到香港分娩，以确保她们的孩子拥有香港居留权。香港活动人士还把怒火指向了内地游客，指责他们耗尽了香港当地资源，虽然他们也给香港带来了大规模资金流入。这一趋势甚至促使香港立法当局考虑修订反歧视法规，称内地客为“蝗虫将被视作一种种族主义违法行为。

In recent years Hong Kong campaigners have denounced “mainland mothers for occupying maternity beds, when they cross the border to give birth and ensure their children have Hong Kong residency. They have also turned their ire against tourists from the mainland for using up local resources, despite the fact that visitors pour huge amounts of money into the territory. This trend even prompted local lawmakers to consider amending anti-discrimination laws so that calling mainlanders “locusts would be a racist offence.

但香港政府目前面临着巨大压力，需要向等候名单上的约3万名老年人提供有补贴的院舍护理服务。香港政府将希望寄托在了毗邻的广东省身上，希望广东能够提供土地，并给香港的人口结构问题提供一个局部解决方案。

But now the Hong Kong government, under pressure to provide homes for almost 30,000 elderly people on the waiting list for subsidised residential care, is looking to neighbouring Guangdong province to provide the space, and a partial solution, for its demographic problem.

到了2050年，老龄人口——按定义是指年龄超过65岁的群体——在香港总人口中所占比例预计将超过三分之一。香港同时也是老年人贫困率最高的发达经济体之一。

The elderly population, defined as those aged over 65, is set to make up more than a third of the population by 2050. Hong Kong also has one of the highest elderly poverty rates in the developed world.

新计划最初限定于至多400个宿位，但其所反映的需求非常急迫。养老服务院舍一个宿位的平均等待时长为20至30个月，这意味着数以千计的老人还没等到宿位，就已离世了。

The scheme will initially be limited to a maximum of 400 places but the need is acute. The average wait of 20-30 months for a place in a residential home means thousands of elderly people die before they ever get one.

吴平耀(Ng Ping Yiu，音译)早在新计划公布以前，就在边境另一边的一家护理中心占了一个宿位。现在新计划将要真正启动了，这位现年71岁的老人开始向朋友们推荐香港康复会(Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation)在深圳设立的护理中心。深圳是一座制造业中心城市。

Ng Ping Yiu took up a place at a care home across the border before the new scheme was unveiled. But now that it is due to start in earnest, the 71-year-old has begun recommending the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation’s home in the manufacturing centre of Shenzhen to his friends.

吴平耀说：“这里有山，有绿叶植物和鲜花。。。在来人探访方面，这里不像香港那么方便，但也没有太大的区别。

“Here, there are mountains, greenery and flowers . . . For visiting, it’s not as convenient as Hong Kong, but there’s not that much difference, says Mr Ng.

护理中心宿位短缺促使吴平耀穿过了中国边境，但这一问题并非香港所独有。正相反，中国内地也需要思考如何为本土老人提供护理服务;到2050年，老年人占中国内地总人口的比例将上升至约四分之一。

The shortage of care home places that has taken Mr Ng across the Chinese border is not unique to Hong Kong. Indeed, Chinese mainland will have to consider how it cares for its own elderly, who are set to grow to almost a quarter of the population by 2050.

但香港为老年群体提供住所的困难因土地供给短缺而进一步加大，而土地供给短缺又使香港成为了全球房地产价格最高的地区之一。但到目前为止，香港居民入住内地护理院舍宿位的比例一直相对较低。

But Hong Kong’s struggle to house its old people is exacerbated by a shortage of land that has meant its property prices are among the highest in the world. And yet the take-up of mainland residential places by Hong Kong residents has so far been relatively low.

现年87岁的吴水永(Ng Shui Wing，音译)在位于香港九龙地区的家中拖着脚四处走动，此时他的妻子正在睡觉。毫无疑问，他当然希望有更大的空间。这间由一个主卧、一个厨房和一个卫生间组成的公寓几乎没有足够的空间来放下他们的所有物品，在放下他妻子的轮椅后就更是局促——因为空间不够，这副轮椅也承担了椅子的双重作用。

Shuffling around his home in the Kowloon area while his wife sleeps, 87-year-old Ng Shui Wing could certainly do with more space. The flat, made up of one main room with a kitchen and bathroom attached, has barely enough space to contain their belongings, let alone his wife’s wheelchairs – one of which doubles as a chair because of the lack of room.

过去四年来，吴水永一直在等候一个政府补贴的护理中心宿位，但他从未产生过去广东的念头。“如果我要去广东，在我这把年纪能怎么过去?我怎么去得了那么远的地方?

Mr Ng has been waiting for a subsidised place in a care home for four years but has no wish to go to Guangdong. “If I went, how would I go at my age? How would I go so far?

他还担心和自己的妻子分开，妻子此前患上了中风。“我照顾她，喂她吃饭……我在家里照料她的时候，身边有一个相爱的人，会更好一点。

He is also worried about being separated from his wife, who has had a stroke: “I care for her, I feed her . . . When I’m at home to look after her it’s better – to have a loved one there.

新计划的支持者们相信，政府有必要向吴水永这样的老人提供激励机制，包括向他们就医疗保健服务做出保证。过去，退休之后定居内地的老人常常会返回香港接受治疗，因为他们承担不起在内地接受治疗的费用。新计划将于今年7月处理首批申请。

Advocates of the scheme – the first applications will be processed in July – believe the government will need to provide incentives, including reassurances about healthcare, for the likes of Mr Ng. In the past, people who retired to the mainland have often travelled back to Hong Kong to receive medical treatment because they cannot afford to pay for it in China.

香港安老事务委员会(Elderly Commission)一直在游说香港政府在更靠近香港本土的地方采取更多举措，并在出售土地给私营开发商的时候，把为老年人提供服务设施作为必要条件。该委员会的宗旨是为香港当局提供建议，跨境住房供给计划就是其首先提出的。

The Elderly Commission, which was set up to advise the territory’s authorities and first suggested the cross-border housing scheme, has also been ­lobbying the Hong Kong government to do more closer to home and make facilities for the ­elderly a requirement when it sells land to private developers.

老年学家陈章明(Alfred Chan)是安老事务委员会主席。他表示，香港政府“已经做出保证，计划向每一个人提供的同等服务将保持不变。

Alfred Chan, a gerontologist who is the commission chairman, says the government “has made the guarantee that the same services planned for everyone should remain the same.

大多数人都一致认为，老年人会倾向于在离家更近的地方或者和家人一起度过晚年。

Most agree that the ­elderly would prefer to grow old closer to home or with family.

非政府组织香港房屋协会(Housing Society)负责长者服务的总经理张满华(­Cheung Moon-wah)表示：“照顾老年人是我们文化的一部分。我们不想要过于早熟的体制化。

“It’s the culture to look after the elderly, says ­Cheung Moon-wah, general manager of elderly services at the Housing Society, a Hong Kong non-governmental organisation. “We don’t want premature institutionalisation.

与此同时，香港养老院舍宿位的等候入住名单却越来越长，未来的前景依然严峻。香港康复会首席执行官伍杏修(Ng Hang-sau)表示：“我们并不是在强迫老年人去广东或者内地养老。这一计划仅仅是向香港居民提供了一个新的选择。香港康复会主要向残疾人、慢性病患者以及老年群体提供帮助。

Meanwhile, the waiting lists for residential care places in Hong Kong grows and the prospects remain stark. “We’re not forcing the elderly to go to Guangdong or the mainland to grow old, says Ng Hang-sau, chief executive of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, which helps the disabled, chronically ill and aged. “This [scheme] just gives one more option to Hong Kong residents.

“但如果他们目前在等候名单上排在第50位，而他们选择前往内地，就能很快得到一个护理宿位。否则，他们仍将只是名单上的第50位。

“[But] if they are number 50 on the waiting list and they choose to come to the mainland, they can get a place quite quickly. If they choose not to, they continue to be number 50 on the list.