The State Of Health Care Insurance In Singapore

Notably, the government of Singapore has taken the role of regulating both private and public health care health insurance. Its primary role is to plan, develop and build the overall welfare of the nation’s health care in the country.

Through the ministry of health – which represents the activities of the government – it plans on how to handle all the nursing homes, hospitals, and clinics. In fact, the health care department in Singapore works under two main ideologies: affordable health care for every person and personal responsibility. Understanding how the health insurance coverage works while in Singapore will help you go through the processes when there is a need.

Categories of health insurance covers

While deciding on company registration options in Singapore, it is crucial for employers to understand the type of health care insurance covers their staff can take. Since the government is the overall controller of the health care sector, all employers are supposed to comply. There are two types of health care covers in Singapore.

Privately financed

Employers have the option to cover their staff under this category which takes care of their inpatient and some outpatient services. This comes as one of the employee benefits. Additionally, people can have a plan with Medisave, like insurance companies which operate privately for profit. If one has such a cover, they will be able to enjoy private hospital services or class-A wards in any public hospital in Singapore.

Publicly financed

In Singapore, there is a mandatory contribution by all staff to their health insurance saving scheme and the employers contribute an equal amount to the same. Employers deduct this percentage of the remuneration and contribute to the Medisave scheme under each employee’s account.

Additionally, all citizens and permanent residents of Singapore are covered by the low-cost health insurance called MediShield. It caters for long term illnesses which surpass the Medisave limits. This is a government initiative and very effective.

Common services that are covered

Any insurance policy has a guideline on what it covers and what it does not. Similarly, these health insurance covers in Singapore will mostly cover the following.

Primary care

There are over 1400 private and 20 public clinics in Singapore. All of them offer services to people under the program at subsidized rates which include immunization and vaccination, dental services and pharmacy. With the recently introduced community health assists scheme, most low income earning people in Singapore can access health care services. So, the government pays an agreed subsidies to the institutions that provide primary care services to citizens.

General hospital services

The hospitals offer various services to patients which include, but are not limited to, specialized treatments and serious in-patient services to citizens. The general hospitals are funded by the government through budget allocation.

Elderly care and social support
 
These services provide health and general care to elderly people. Mainly, they are run by private welfare organizations. Their financial support is through government subsidies and the family also pays an agreed amount. They may also run under sponsorship, particularly those that take care of the poor elderly people.

This is a guest blog entry.