Gan: Don’t worry about MediShield Life premiums

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Gan: Don’t worry about MediShield Life premiums

June 8th, 2014 | Author: Editorial

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to celebrate World Blood Donor Day at Sentosa yesterday (7 Jun), Health Minister Gan Kim Yong assured everyone that MediShield Life premiums will be kept affordable for all segments of the population.

In particular, he stressed that the 1% increase in the employer’s Medisave contribution next year will be sufficient to cover the rise in premiums for the majority of the upper middle-income families when MediShield Life starts.

He said that for those earning at least $5,000 – the income cap for calculating CPF contributions – the additional 1% Medisave contribution will provide $600 a year. This will be enough to cover the increase in premiums for most families in that income bracket, he said.

With more benefits and a higher payout from MediShield Life, premiums will rise but he assured everyone that premiums would be kept affordable for all.
He said:
For the older Singaporeans, the pioneer generation, the Pioneer Generation Package announced recently will ensure that our pioneers don’t need to worry about MediShield Life premiums.
Secondly, the middle- to lower-income Singaporean families, there will be a permanent subsidy structure to ensure that they too will be able to afford the premium for the family.
And for the middle and higher-income Singaporeans, the additional 1% Medisave contribution will go a long way to help them cope with MediShield Life premiums.
For anyone else who may “fall through the cracks”, the government will work out a special scheme to help them, he promised.

He also added that the transitional subsidies, offered over 4 years by the government, will help Singaporeans ease into MediShield Life.

“Because this is a very major shift in the health-care financing framework, the Government is committed to providing sufficient help and support,” said Mr Gan. “The idea is to help as many people as we can.”
Details of MediShield Life’s enhanced benefits and wider coverage were announced by MLRC on Thursday (5 Jun), but there has been no news yet on how much the premiums will cost exactly.
The final report from the committee will be submitted to the government at the end of this month and be debated in Parliament next month.

Government committed to providing sufficient help and support in healthcare

Speaking of the government’s commitment to provide “help and support” to Singaporeans in healthcare, during a parliamentary debate on 12 November 2013, Mr Gan said that the government will do more to enlarge its share of healthcare cost from the current less than one-third to more than 40% (he did not give a time-frame to implement such an increase to 40%).

However, comparing with the data from OECD countries using Gan’s promised 40% figure, the Singapore government is still very much less generous than the governments of OECD countries, preferring Singaporeans to bear more in healthcare cost either through out-of-pocket payments or buying more health insurance themselves:

Expenditure on health by type of financing, 2011 (or nearest year)Public SpendingPrivate out-of-pocketPrivate insuranceOtherPrivate TotalNetherlands85.66.05.62.914.4Norway84.915.10.00.015 .1Denmark84.713.31.90.115.3Czech Rep83.915.00.11.016.1Luxembourg83.012.33.80.917.0U K82.89.93.04.217.2NZ82.710.94.81.617.3Japan81.914. 62.41.118.1Sweden81.617.20.31.018.4Iceland80.418.2 0.01.419.6Estonia80.217.80.31.819.8Italy77.818.01. 03.222.2Austria77.217.04.51.222.8France77.27.714.4 0.722.8Germany77.012.49.70.923.0Belgium75.919.74.2 0.224.1Finland75.319.52.23.024.7Slovak Rep73.823.60.02.626.2Slovenia73.112.213.61.126.9Sp ain72.921.15.70.327.1Turkey72.719.20.08.127.3Polan d70.924.00.74.429.1Canada69.915.512.91.630.1Austra lia68.020.48.33.432.0Ireland67.018.111.93.033.0Gre ece65.930.92.80.334.1Portugal65.528.94.90.634.5Swi tzerland64.925.88.60.835.1Hungary64.526.82.76.035. 5Israel62.324.810.12.737.7Korea56.636.85.80.743.4U S48.812.135.24.051.2Mexico47.349.03.70.052.7Chile4 4.938.316.90.055.1OECD3472.419.85.91.927.6
[Source]: OECD Health Report
*
Private financing of healthcare consists mainly of payments by households (either as standalone payments or as part of co-payment arrangements) as well as various forms of private health insurance.
On average, the share of public spending in healthcare for OECD countries was 72.4% in 2011.

Most of the OECD countries spent more than 50% in terms of share of public spending on healthcare in 2011. The exceptions were: Chile (45%), Mexico (47%) and the United States (49%). Still, their spending was very close to 50%.

As can be seen, the governments of all the OECD countries are still spending more on healthcare as a percentage of public share in health spending compared to the Singapore government, even after factoring in Gan’s new target of 40%.

With the Singapore government being so miserly towards its citizens in terms of healthcare, it is no wonder that regular blood donor and volunteer, Bernard Tan, preferred to help out at the CPF protest in Hong Lim Park than attend the World Blood Donor Day event in Sentosa.

Bernard said (‘A volunteer’s thoughts on 7 June 2014 CPF protest‘):
Elsewhere, there was also a Red Cross World Donor Day 2014. Being a regular blood donor and volunteer, I was invited with discounts and coupons to go to the venue, Sentosa.
I sacrificed going to Sentosa and opted for going to Hong Lim Park instead. I felt much better after I found out that the Guest-of-honors were PAP’s Ms Tin Pei Ling and Mr Gan Kim Yong!



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