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Tag: Medishield

  • The 3 M’s Of Healthcare In Singapore

    The 3 M’s Of Healthcare In Singapore

    Many of us know we are covered by some health insurance under our CPF scheme, but do we know enough to make use of it?

    Do you understand the difference between Medishield, Medisave and Medifund? How can these help Singaporeans with our hospitalisation and medical bills?

    MediShield

    MediShield is a basic medical insurance plan that helps cover large hospital bills and selected outpatient treatments. MediShield premiums can be paid using Medisave, and it will be changed to become MediShield Life by end of 2015.

    Medisave

    Medisave is a national healthcare savings scheme where a portion of your CPF savings goes into the account to help you build up your savings for healthcare purposes.

    You can use your Medisave to pay for your own and your immediate family members’ hospitalisation payments. You can also use your Medisave savings to pay the premiums of MediShield and Medisave-approved Integrated Shield Plans.

    Coverage includes hospitalisation, day surgery and certain outpatient treatments, including health screening and vaccinations for selected groups.

    Medisave can be used at public hospitals, Medisave-accredited private hospitals and outpatient clinics.

    Medifund

    Medifund is an endowment fund that works like a financial safety net to help needy Singaporeans who cannot afford hospital expenses despite Medisave and MediShield.

    The CPF Board administers the Medisave and MediShield schemes while there are other medisave-approved integrated shield plans that work with private insurers to provide a more comprehensive coverage.

    More than 80 percent of Singaporeans use Medisave to pay for their hospitalisation expenses and about 75 percent of Singaporeans are covered under MediShield and other approved insurance plans.

    Unlike some other countries where healthcare benefits enjoy a large government subsidy, the Singapore government emphasises on individual responsibility with some government support.

    As we all know how huge hospitalisation bills can be in Singapore, how then can we ensure we have a better coverage?

    Changes in Medishield starting from December 2007 ensure all new-born Singaporeans are automatically covered by the programme, helping policyholders to pay for large hospitalisation bills at Class B2/C level.

    Medishield has deductible and co-insurance features, which means you need to pay an initial amount once in a policy year before you can make a claim.

    Having said this, you may notice that medical bills are still not cheap and not comprehensively covered even under the Medishield.

    That’s where the Medisave-approved Shield plans come in.

    These policies ensure that you enjoy the benefits of coverage both from your private insurers as well as MediShield. Annual premiums average about $300 for the age band of 31 to 40.

    These Private Integrated Shield Plans are offered by 5 insurers:

    Great Eastern Life

    NTUC Income

    Aviva

    Prudential Assurance

    American International Assurance

    Given the fact that Medisave-approved Shield plans are largely popular, you can guess that the basic coverage of Medisave for our healthcare is definitely not enough for most Singaporeans.

    Be prudent and do consider buying a private insurance plan to top it up because the last thing you want to worry about when you are sick or hospitalised is borrowing money to pay for the hefty bills!

     

    Source: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com

  • Suara Singapura Did Not Adequately Reflect View Of Panellist

    Suara Singapura Did Not Adequately Reflect View Of Panellist

    I spent almost half a day for the Suara Singapura recording and on stage for more than 2 hours. I was invited to speak my mind. Therefore I genuinely spoke up from my heart representing voices and concerns of common Singaporeans I work with EVERYDAY. My fellow panel speakers witnessed that I almost teared when I shared one of my real life encounters.

    I spoke so much but it was all wasted as it was heavily and biasedly edited. I literally appeared like a mute who kept adjusting my seat, nodding while holding the mic but couldn’t speak a word.

    One of the issues that I actually brought up was on healthcare in Singapore, based on my experience assisting someone in appealing for Medifund. Singaporeans have to sustain their premiums which gets exceptionally high as they grow older. The government has yet to address this issue. When their Medisave account dries up, its impossible for them to pay the premium, therefore causing the insurance to lapse.

    I also brought up issues on the growing numbers of young Singaporean living on bad credits. I did my research prior to the recording of the show so that I was well informed on current figures and statistics. But I was again being singled out to appear on screen just holding the mic and kept adjusting my seat.

    I had to watch it via catchup TV as I was busy serving the community when it’s was shown ‘live’ on Suria. Guess what I encoutered again today? Another case of a cancer patient who have to sell her house to bear her medical expenses. So blame these people for not buying insurance and to not atleast maintain their MediShield premiums? What was not shown on TV was, I suggested that the government should work much closer with insurance companies and pay more attention on this persistent issue.

    What you see on TV does NOT represent even an inch of what I do on a daily basis. I’m utterly disappointed of how I was positioned in the show. But it’s alright. I have a bigger cause which is to continue serving my clients and the community and you’ll definitely will get more than 10 seconds of my attention.

     

    Source: https://www.facebook.com/hishamzain1111

  • Medishield Coverage Should Be More Comprehensive

    Medishield Coverage Should Be More Comprehensive

    By this time next year, the risk of financial catastrophe from large health-care bills will be much reduced for cancer patients.

    Why? Simple: MediShield Life, which would have come into effect by then, will greatly increase coverage for cancer care. For outpatient chemotherapy, coverage would jump from $1,240 to $3,000 a month. Radiation therapy will also enjoy an increase, from $160 a treatment to $500.

    Why did the Ministry of Health (MOH) decide to focus on cancer? Why not other diseases too?

    The decision to expand coverage for cancer is unsurprising.

    Cancer accounts for almost a third of deaths in Singapore and 5.9 per cent of all hospitalisations. Furthermore, cancer care and especially its costs are frequently raised as concerns.

    The late senior minister of state for health Balaji Sadasivan, while undergoing treatment for cancer, remarked: “Cancer treatment can be very, very expensive. This is something our health system will have to deal with. It is not surprising if some patients have to sell their house.”

    Cancer care has also been revolutionised by the advent of targeted therapies, biologics that target cancer cells at the molecular level. These medicines have three important implications for the way we finance health care.

    First, in certain diseases such as breast and colon cancers, the results have been transformative, even for advanced disease. We are not talking about weeks or months of added survival but, in many instances, years of life, years of quality life.

    This brings us to the second point, on toxicity. Because of the specific targeting, side effects are much reduced compared with conventional chemotherapy, which affects normal cells as well. Hence, many of the targeted therapies can and are prescribed on an outpatient basis. While some outpatient chemotherapy treatment can be covered, our health financing remains heavily inpatient-biased.

    Third, the minimal side effects and continued “suppression” of cancer activity means the treatment regime continues for extended periods. Treatment cycles are no longer confined to 21- or 28-day periods – typical for conventional chemotherapies which have to be of short duration because of their toxic effect on the body. Instead, treatment can last for years. Increasingly, some cancer therapies are becoming more like drugs for chronic ailments such as heart disease and diabetes which need to be taken for life.

    For example, trastuzumab (also called herceptin) is a treatment for some types of advanced breast cancer. It is recommended to be given “for as long as it keeps the cancer under control”.

    In the United States, almost 90 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survive at least five years. Of those whose cancers have spread to other parts of the body, 25 per cent survive at least five years.

    That amounts to many doses of trastuzumab, which, at about $4,000 a month, translates to very heavy costs for Singaporeans in the local context if insurance such as MediShield/ MediShield Life did not provide some cover for extended periods.

    From next year, MediShield Life will step in. The rationale for increasing coverage for cancer is well-founded and the MOH deserves credit for expanding coverage in this area.

    But what about Singaporeans with other diseases who may find themselves in similar predicaments? These diseases may not be as common as cancer but the advances in medicine can be just as transformative. Perhaps immune conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis? I know of at least one Singaporean who is living away from Singapore because her insurance overseas covers outpatient-targeted therapies for lupus.

    What about multiple sclerosis, which is estimated to affect some 100 Singaporeans? It tends to hit women between the ages of 20 and 40, when many would be mothers and economically active.

    MediShield Life cannot cover every disease comprehensively – there simply isn’t enough money – but we don’t need to stop at just cancer. Over time, transformative treatments even for less common diseases should be considered for specific inclusion in MediShield Life.

    MediShield Life promises “Better Protection. For All. For Life”. As we move into 2015, Singapore’s 50th anniversary, let’s make this more and more a reality for every Singaporean.

    [email protected]

    Jeremy Lim, the writer, is head of the health and life sciences practice, Asia-Pacific, for global consultancy firm Oliver Wyman.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com