Grace Fu: S’poreans will continue to pay for healthcare

During a dialogue session with Ang Mo Kio residents today (14 Apr), Minister in PMO, Grace Fu, said Singaporeans will continue to pay for healthcare even as the Govt is prepared to shoulder a larger share of healthcare costs.

She said that this is to “promote self-reliance and avoid fiscal problems seen in other countries”.

Ang Mo Kio residents mainly talked and asked about healthcare issues during the dialogue session with Ms Fu. Many are asking for greater subsidies to help Singaporeans cope with rising healthcare costs.

Ms Fu said, “We can have a 20 per cent subsidy or 80 per cent subsidy, but if the total medical bill is very big, any small percentage or even big percentage will be a lot of money for the residents here.”

She noted that compared to other countries like Malaysia, Singapore’s healthcare costs can be higher. One reason is due to drug companies charging different prices in different countries.

She said the government cannot put in place schemes like those in Europe, where there is no co-payment.

She said, “With the very ageing population that we are anticipating, the costs of supporting that system will actually fall on our children. They have to support us with their taxes, so we have to make sure that we do not go down the route of some of the countries or nations that we see are now having great difficulties supporting such a social security system.”

Whatever it is, the fact remains that among the First World Advanced Economies (as defined by IMF)*, the Singapore Govt spends the least in healthcare as percentage of all health spending. The following figures are taken from 2010 data of the World Health Organization (WHO) [Link].

In other words, our Govt is the most “kiam siap” (stingy) when comes to healthcare as compared with the Govts from the rest of the first world economies.

In the data provided by WHO, Singapore’s healthcare spending is only 4% of our GDP, thelowest in the list (see below). And in terms of spending on healthcare as a percentage of all government spending, not surprisingly, the Singapore govt spends only 8%, again, thelowest in the list.

And because the Singapore govt is so “kiam siap”, only willing to spend 36.3% of total health spending, Singapore’s private spending on healthcare as a percentage of total health spending is the highest among the first world economies at 63.7%.

From the graph, you can decide if our current PAP Govt is a caring one or not:

* Hong Kong and Taiwan are not included in the table as WHO does not keep track of data from these 2 places.