March 15th, 2013
The SDP welcomes Health Minister Gan Kim Yong’s acknowledgment about high healthcare costs in Singapore. We are also pleased to note that he has take some measures to ease such costs for Singaporeans, in particular:
- making some parts of the recommended National Vaccination program for children free,
- removing the administrative charges for some Medisave use, and
- promising to review healthcare costs for the people.
However, these proposed changes seem to be piecemeal measures that do not tackle the fundamental issues in our healthcare system. The current 3M system of Medisave, Medishield and Medifund will continue to leave a heavy financial burden on Singaporeans.
In its place should be risk pooling in a national health insurance scheme which authorizes evidence-based healthcare. Healthcare provided through such national insurance coverage will make our system universal.
We must jettison the mindset of equating government healthcare expenditure with welfare and waste. Healthcare is a basic human right, not a commodity. Spending on the people’s health is an investment worth making.
As such, the people should be able to expect the Government to shoulder the major part of the nation’s total healthcare expenditure (THE). Presently, the Government’s expends only about 30 percent of the THE. We should bring it to developed country levels of about 70 percent.
This would help ease the pressure on Singaporeans especially when they meet with catastrophic illnesses and require extensive and intensive medical care.
Singaporeans must remember that Medisave is taken from our CPF savings. The funds are quickly depleted when medical bills pile up, either for ourselves or for our parents and/or children. The more we use our Medisave, the less we have for our retirement.
A national insurance scheme like the one we propose in the SDP National Healthcare Plan: Caring For All Singaporeans, where we pool our health risks, is the only way that we can make healthcare not only universal but also affordable and sustainable. http://yoursdp.org/load/the_sdp_national_healthcare_plan/1-1-0-5
Such a system emphasizes the ‘we’ instead of the ‘me’ and builds a compassionate community where we look out for one another.
Paul Tambyah
Patrick Kee
Leong Yan Hoi
Wong Wee Nam
(for the SDP Healthcare Advisory Panel)
http://yoursdp.org/news/moh_must_ta...=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=#sdp
The SDP welcomes Health Minister Gan Kim Yong’s acknowledgment about high healthcare costs in Singapore. We are also pleased to note that he has take some measures to ease such costs for Singaporeans, in particular:
- making some parts of the recommended National Vaccination program for children free,
- removing the administrative charges for some Medisave use, and
- promising to review healthcare costs for the people.
However, these proposed changes seem to be piecemeal measures that do not tackle the fundamental issues in our healthcare system. The current 3M system of Medisave, Medishield and Medifund will continue to leave a heavy financial burden on Singaporeans.
In its place should be risk pooling in a national health insurance scheme which authorizes evidence-based healthcare. Healthcare provided through such national insurance coverage will make our system universal.
We must jettison the mindset of equating government healthcare expenditure with welfare and waste. Healthcare is a basic human right, not a commodity. Spending on the people’s health is an investment worth making.
As such, the people should be able to expect the Government to shoulder the major part of the nation’s total healthcare expenditure (THE). Presently, the Government’s expends only about 30 percent of the THE. We should bring it to developed country levels of about 70 percent.
This would help ease the pressure on Singaporeans especially when they meet with catastrophic illnesses and require extensive and intensive medical care.
Singaporeans must remember that Medisave is taken from our CPF savings. The funds are quickly depleted when medical bills pile up, either for ourselves or for our parents and/or children. The more we use our Medisave, the less we have for our retirement.
A national insurance scheme like the one we propose in the SDP National Healthcare Plan: Caring For All Singaporeans, where we pool our health risks, is the only way that we can make healthcare not only universal but also affordable and sustainable. http://yoursdp.org/load/the_sdp_national_healthcare_plan/1-1-0-5
Such a system emphasizes the ‘we’ instead of the ‘me’ and builds a compassionate community where we look out for one another.
Paul Tambyah
Patrick Kee
Leong Yan Hoi
Wong Wee Nam
(for the SDP Healthcare Advisory Panel)
http://yoursdp.org/news/moh_must_ta...=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=#sdp