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ShareHONG KONG: Chinese women in advanced stages of pregnancy are testing the limits of the "one country, two systems" arrangement between mainland China and Hong Kong by nipping across the border into the former British colony, delivering babies in public hospitals -- and in many cases leaving without paying their bills.
So acute has the problem become that immigration authorities in Hong Kong are considering turning back pregnant women from the mainland at the border.
Hong Kong's Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong revealed last week that in the first 10 months of this year, over 12,000 babies had been born in Hong Kong to "non-resident parents". This was a 20-fold increase since 2001, he said. Acknowledging that this was a "serious" and "sensitive" issue, he said that one of the options on board was for immigration authorities to refuse entry to pregnant women if the "tourist's real reason for entering Hong Kong is not tourism".
One reason why this "maternity tourism" thrives is that Chinese babies born in Hong Kong get permanent residency rights -- and a slew of welfare benefits like free schooling and medical benefits. Additionally, many women seek out Hong Kong's vastly superior public health service.
Such calibrated prenatal border-crossings are also straining Hong Kong's public health services, particularly since in many cases, the parents have returned without settling their bills. By some accounts, public health services absorbed over HK$300 million (about $40 million) in unpaid bills over the past years. That cost is eventually absorbed by Hong Kong's taxpayers.
Earlier this year, hospitals imposed a fee for "non-resident" pregnant women, but that hasn't entirely abated the flow of mothers-to-be. Authorities are now considering a higher fee - and a substantial deposit - as further disincentives. They are also considering proposals to solicit the services of debt-collecting agencies to recover unpaid bills.
Last week, Hong Kong legislators also suggested that one other solution to this problem would be to deny birth certificates -- which would be necessary to claim residency -- for the children of parents who don't settle the bills.Fears of a social backlash against visitors from mainland China -- who are already perceived among sections of Hong Kong's population as their "poor relatives" who are feeding off the territory's wealth -- were raised when a group of pregnant women in Hong Kong staged a protest last week.
They claimed that maternity services in Hong Kong's public hospitals had deteriorated under the strain of the flow of pregnant women from the mainland -- and that the local omen had in some cases been forced to give birth outside the wards without any privacy.
