http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_384249.html
Higher withdrawals for ops
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
PHOTO: BT
FROM today, patients will be able to withdraw up to 80 per cent more from their Medisave accounts to pay for operations.
The Health Ministry expects this to cut the out-of-pocket payments for about 300,000 private patients a year.
Announcing the change earlier this year, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said it was in response to calls by middle-income people who wanted to use their hefty Medisave accounts rather than dip into their pockets to pay for hospital treatments.
Patients in B2- or C-class wards with healthy Medisave accounts rarely need to pay any cash for their hospital stays. This is because of the heavy subsidies they get, which range from 50 per cent to 80 per cent of their bills.
The amount of Medisave withdrawal allowed depends on the type of operation, and used to range from $150 to $5,000. From Monday, this goes up to $250 to $7,550.
So a patient in an A-class ward who goes for a knee transplant can expect to stay in the hospital for six days and incur a bill of about $13,500.
Under the old limits, Medisave would have picked up $5,900, leaving the patient $7,600 to settle with cash. Now, Medisave picks up almost $2,000 more.
However, patients who are well covered with insurance like Mrs A.B. Poh, 50, are unlikely to benefit from the change. Mrs Poh, who will be going for gall bladder surgery as a private patient later this month, will have 85 per cent of her $4,500 bill picked up by insurance. The roughly $700 she needs to pay can already be fully covered under the old rates.
The engineering lecturer said she has no problems paying cash, though she is likely to use her Medisave, since it is 'convenient and it will be topped up again'.
This is her first serious illness, so her Medisave, which is at the maximum amount, has not been touched.
Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
Higher withdrawals for ops
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
PHOTO: BT
FROM today, patients will be able to withdraw up to 80 per cent more from their Medisave accounts to pay for operations.
The Health Ministry expects this to cut the out-of-pocket payments for about 300,000 private patients a year.
Announcing the change earlier this year, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said it was in response to calls by middle-income people who wanted to use their hefty Medisave accounts rather than dip into their pockets to pay for hospital treatments.
Patients in B2- or C-class wards with healthy Medisave accounts rarely need to pay any cash for their hospital stays. This is because of the heavy subsidies they get, which range from 50 per cent to 80 per cent of their bills.
The amount of Medisave withdrawal allowed depends on the type of operation, and used to range from $150 to $5,000. From Monday, this goes up to $250 to $7,550.
So a patient in an A-class ward who goes for a knee transplant can expect to stay in the hospital for six days and incur a bill of about $13,500.
Under the old limits, Medisave would have picked up $5,900, leaving the patient $7,600 to settle with cash. Now, Medisave picks up almost $2,000 more.
However, patients who are well covered with insurance like Mrs A.B. Poh, 50, are unlikely to benefit from the change. Mrs Poh, who will be going for gall bladder surgery as a private patient later this month, will have 85 per cent of her $4,500 bill picked up by insurance. The roughly $700 she needs to pay can already be fully covered under the old rates.
The engineering lecturer said she has no problems paying cash, though she is likely to use her Medisave, since it is 'convenient and it will be topped up again'.
This is her first serious illness, so her Medisave, which is at the maximum amount, has not been touched.
Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
