Universal healthcare coverage
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 9:52PM Lucky Tan's post on Singapore's healthcare system argues for universal coverage for the poor and unemployed, to help alleviate the worry of being unable to afford healthcare and to close the income inequality gap.
Taking care of yourself and your family may sound like a sensible idea except that Singapore has the highest income gap in developed world...Because of the income gap, medical cost has been rising much faster than average income and for some in the the lower income bracket it is now unaffordable.
Without universality of medical coverage, the high burden of medical is passed other family members to keep govt's expenses down. The entire system worsens the inequality in our society by making medical care a heavy burden for those in our society less able to shoulder it.
The above chart (courtesy of Lucky Tan's site) shows how much more we pay for our healthcare compared to other industrialised nations. It's interesting to note that Australia, Canada, France and the UK all have government-run universal healthcare coverage, and their citizens spend less than we do.
Recent announcements of a 0.5% restoration to CPF contributions to the Medisave accounts will help Singaporeans co-pay medical bills, but it does not help for those who require medical help and cannot afford it. This should be part of a larger social safety net that should cover our poor and our senior citizens, because they shouldn't need to worry about affording healthcare, but rather focus on full recovery.
Right now, we are a country where a significant, and still growing, part of the population feels that it's less costly to die than to be ill, and that should not be something that we are proud of.
Reader Comments (3)
Fundamental problem is that CPF is over-stretched. Housing or healthcare has to be delinked from CPF.
@Donaldson: I totally agree. I believe CPF should be delinked from most of its accepted usage today, housing and healthcare being the primary items.
Good post, i will share it