Dear TRS,
Recently, I paid a visit to a dental clinic to have my wisdom teeth extracted. I currently reside in Australia and decided to visit Singapore to use what's left of my Medisave account to pay for my procedure. After the entire procedure was done, not only did I realise I was charged $1100 per surgical extraction per tooth, but due to my Medisave not having a $2000 minimum sum, I was unable to touch any of my money in my account. My mother ended up using her Medisave to "subsidise" my procedure, and I was left to pay a hefty amount of close to $800 to have 3 of my teeth extracted.
My decision to have this procedure done in Singapore was not without careful planning. I had more faith in the surgical hygiene of Singaporean doctors and healthcare sector and was also told that my procedure could be subsidised almost entirely. However, faced with an exorbitant bill, I realised that if I had the procedure done in Australia, it would cost me a maximum of $500 to have all 4 teeth taken out by a dentist of equal calibre. I am a member of their public health welfare system (Medicare) despite not being a citizen or PR, and their subsidies come from the government, not their own people's health fund.
Nalina
TRS Contributor
traitor!
