With growing affluence, the world’s population is living longer in terms of life expectancies in general but at the same time the lives of far too many people globally are being blighted and cut short by diseases, such as cancer, heart diseases, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus. The last two decades have also shown decreasing age-standardized death rates from the common killers including heart diseases, stroke and most cancers. The most commonly cited diseases that required long-term follow-up by doctors, including disease of the circulatory system, endocrine and metabolic disease and musculoskeletal disease. Once a patient has been diagnosed with long-term diseases, they may face lifelong treatment which can be very costly both to themselves, their families and the healthcare system. Concomitant with population ageing in Hong Kong is an increasing occurrence of chronic illnesses. Leading causes of death by cancer, diseases of the heart, pneumonia, stroke, respiratory diseases, and renal diseases are the main causes of mortality in the elderly population, accounting for almost 80% of deaths in this age group in 2010 according to data from the Centre for Health Protection. All of these are chronic conditions, with the exception of pneumonia, and pose a major burden to the healthcare system. In addition, diabetes and hypertension are two common chronic diseases that could lead to major health problems and complications. About 43% of the patients attending the GOPC of HA have either hypertension or diabetes. These two conditions are common risk factors for heart disease and stroke, which not only are the leading causes of death, but also occupy a large proportion of inpatient days. Other complications of diabetes include kidney failure, eye disease and nerve damage. The function of health insurance is to reduce the policyholder’s financial burden to pay for the medical expense in case of sickness or injury resulting from accident. There are various kinds of medical plans in the market with different protection coverage, insured limit, terms and conditions, and even difference in quality of services. In fact, to choose a suitable plan, it is important to understand one’s actual need for medical service and to have basic understanding of what health insurance is about. We have professional insurance experts who can provide you with free medical insurance counseling service that help you understand and compare different health plans of different insurance companies. To be a smart consumer, do not hesitate to call us at (852) 3589 5000 for any enquiries. We are happy to find you a solution.