Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow has warned the community should not rely on squeezing more dollars out of the tax-paying minority to meet rising healthcare expenditure.

He said today such a move would further burden the middle class and better options are needed.

"This is something we have to admit it is a fact. I think our solution is to ensure the money to be spent will be properly spent and will be targeted to the most needing areas," he said.

"I think if we keep asking taxpayers, there will be only 1.26 million people contributing and mainly 300,000 who pay 85% of all taxes. If we just increase tax, of course the people who will suffer most are the middle class who pay most of the tax."

He said planning must start on who will be paying and how it should be paid, and how the money should be distributed.

"Either you save money for future use or you save part of it and only use part of it to pool together to build up an insurance system," he said. "All these are options we will be discussing and analysing in our next report."