“Singapore’s healthcare policies have successful met the needs of the people.”

Singapore’s healthcare policies have by and large been successful in meeting the needs of Singaporeans. As will be shown, the government’s emphasis on encouraging self-reliance, keeping healthcare afforable, promoting a healthy lifestyle and engaging the community in the provision of healthcare have greatly improved the standard of healthcare in Singapore, ensuring that Singaporeans continued to enjoy a high quality of healthcare services.

Singapore’s healthcare policies gives the individual incentives to stay healthy and not use medical services he or she does not really need. This ensures that healthcare resources are allocated to those in need of them. The government’s introduction of Medisace, a savings scheme allows individuals to save up for their future medical bills by allocating a portion(6 – 8%) of their monthly CPF contributions of 34.5% (20% individual, 14.5% employer) into their Medisave account. By encouraging Singaporeans to have money in their Medisave accounts, they are better able to pay for healthcare. Medisave, therefore, helps to lighten the government’s burden of paying for healthcare services.

In addition, encompassing the notion of self-reliance, the government introduced the MediShield scheme whereby Singaporeans pay for this scheme with their Medisave, to cover lage medical bills that Medisave does not cover. For example, a patient can use MediShield to pay for more long-term hospitalisation or treatment of serious illnesses such as kidney dialysis and chronic heart diseases. Essentially, the use of MediShield and Medisave is able to meet a large part of Singaporeans’ heathcare needs.

Furthermore, the government seek to ensure that basic healthcare is affordable to all Singaporeans. This is done by putting in place safety nets to ensure that healthcare remains affordable. Direct subsidies are given to government hospitals, polyclinics and nursing homes for the elderly to ensure that all basic healthcare services are available to all Singaporeans. Different rates of subsidies are given to the different classes of wards in hospitals. For instance, a patient in a Class C ward is given 4 times more subsidies than a patient in a Class B1 ward.

Moreover, the government ensures that all Singaporeans enjoys basic healthcare services. Despite the presence of Medisave, MediShield and government subsidies, there are many needy Singaporeans who still cannot afford to pay for their medical expenses. Thus, in oder to keep healthcare cheap and affordable to all, the Medifund was set up to provide help for those who are unable to pay fro healthcare. The government started with a fund of $200 million and the interest earned from this fund is given to public hospitals to provide help for needy patients. Patients are thus able to apply for this fund to pay for their healthcare.

Another spectrum of the government’s healthcare policies is the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. If a person is in good health, he will not need medical treatment and the person can save on medical expenses. A healthy lifestyle has always been emphasised in Singapore. Through health education, people are provided with the knowledge to make informed choices. Regular physical exercies and a well-balanced diet are encouraged. Bad habits such as smoking and excessive drinking are discouraged. On 19 April 1992, the National Healthy Lifestyle Campaign was launched by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. It encourages Singaporeans to incorporate physical activity into their daily life and teaches them how to read food labels to select healthier food Adults are also encouraged to go for screening programmes for early detection of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and heart diseases.

On top of all these, the government engages the community to provides healthcare support services to meet the needs of the people. This is because it is not possible for the government to run all heathcare services. For instance, some patients who are discharged from hospitals may still need medical care. Voluntary welfare organisations are given grants to run community hospitals, nursing homes and day rehabilitation centres for Singaporeans. An example of a voluntary welfare organisation is the Ren Ci Hospital who organises fund-raising drives on a yearly basis to obtain the funds they need to provide medical care for their patients. At the same time, support is given by the government to organisations such as the National Kidney Foundation(NKF), that provide specific healthcare support services. These healthcare cater to the specific needs of patients.

Thus, it is clearly evident that the multi-tier approach taken by the government with regard to providing healthcare services to meet the needs of the people have been successful and benefited much Singaporeans. However, it must that the statement is a myopic one, with its focus only on the current healthcare situation in Singapore.

It is likely that healthcare costs will rise in the future. This is largely because of the rise in the cost of medical equipment, treatment and medicine as well as the projected increase in the number of senior citizens in the country. Moreover, with the restructuring of hospitals, it would very well mean higher hopsitals bills for the patients. When hopsitals are given more freedom to reorganise to meet the needs of Singaporeans, this would lead to a reduction in the amount of subsidies given to hospitals. With this in mind, medical bills would be likely to increase and healthcare would then not be affordable to Singaporeans in the longer-term.

Furthermore, as Singapore aged, the working-age population will fall significantly. This would mean that less people would be paying taxes to the government and this would mean that government revenues would fall. With this in mind, less money would then be allocated to the provision of healthcare services. Singaporeans would then also be made to pay more for their medical bills and services. Quality of healthcare services will fall and more and more Singaporeans will suffer from a decline in the standard of healthcare.

In conclusion, when one compares the sickness rate, life expectancy, or infant mortality rate of Singapore with most major developed countires such as Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States, it will be noted that Singapore has done quite well. This would mean that the healthcare policies of the Singapore government have been successful in meeting the needs of the people.The multi-dimensional approach taken by the government to the provision of healthcare in Singapore has meant that Singaporeans are able to enjoy quality healthcare services. However, with rising costs and an ageing population, there is now no gurantee that future generation of Singaporeans will continue to enjoy the high quality of healthcare that their parents are currently enjoying.