Health Minster Announced The Difference Foreigners /PR
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Will the programs truly benefit the locals ?
How many millions have been blown on foreigners?
The downswinging of the economy is taking the bite already.
Dont be hoodwinked.
Dec 11, 2006
Foreigners' medical subsidies to be cut
Fee hikes next Oct will save Govt $36m a year; PRs will also pay more
By Lee Hui Chieh & Lynn Lee
FROM October next year, foreign workers here will have to pay the full cost of all medical treatment they receive at public hospitals.
A day's stay in a B2- of C-class ward, for example, will cost them $150 to $200, up from about $25 to $50 now.
To help pay for the bigger medical bills, foreign workers will likely be covered by a compulsory medical insurance scheme which the Government is now studying.
Permanent residents will also start paying more next year. Their bills will go up by 5 percentage points from October, followed by a similar jump 12 months later.
Over two years, a PR's average specialist outpatient clinic bill, which is now about $80 to $100, will go up to $88 to $110.
The fee hikes will apply to charges for B1-, B2- and C-class wards, and for day surgery and specialist outpatient clinic visits.
The only exception is when anyone turns up at hospital emergency departments - the fees will be the same for all, regardless of nationality or citizenship.
About 875,500 foreigners and 480,000 PRs will be affected by the changes. They were announced by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday after he toured a traditional Chinese medicine fair held by Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao and Chong Pang Community Club.
The cuts will save the Government an estimated $36 million a year, which will be ploughed back into health-care subsidies for a greying population, said Mr Khaw.
The move to reduce the medical subsidies that non-citizens now enjoy is part of an effort to 'treat visitors well, but citizens better' - an assurance Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave last weekend at the People's Action Party's delegates conference.
Cuts in education subsidies for foreigners are likely to be next.
Explaining the need for a change in hospital charges, Mr Khaw said: 'When we started treating all foreign workers like Singaporeans many years ago, the numbers were small. But over the years, as you can see, the economy, the structure, has changed and the numbers of foreign workers will continue to grow...
'It is not an insignificant sum - $36 million per year. We will plough it back to subsidise the growing number of elderly Singaporeans.'
Last year, public hospitals saw about 10,000 admissions of foreign workers and a similar number of PRs. Together, they made up about 9 per cent of subsidised admissions.
Foreign workers and PRs also accounted for about 7 per cent of the total number of subsidised patients who underwent day surgery or were seen to at specialist outpatient clinics last year.
For polyclinic treatment, non-citizens started paying more from January this year. Foreign workers now pay the full consultation fee of $16 and PRs pay $12, up from $8 they used to pay, like the citizens.
Foreign workers' subsidies are being removed because it is unfair for Singaporeans to subsidise them, Mr Khaw said.
At a separate community event yesterday, outgoing labour chief Lim Boon Heng said that feedback from the unions was that employers enjoyed an advantage now by hiring foreign workers over locals, because the state helped out with their medical bills.
By removing the subsidy, the employer would be paying the full cost of employing a foreign worker and 'not have this distortion to tilt the ground in favour of foreign workers', he said.
But if foreigners ran into trouble with their medical bills even if they were insured, Mr Khaw had this assurance: 'Having bought insurance, and for whatever reasons, the bill is so big that you can't afford, then we will find some ways to help out.'
WTF, S$36,000,000.00 divided by (875,500 foreigners + 480,000 PRs) = S$26.558 per person. So this is the difference below..
Big news for Foreigners/PRS!!!!! Fhank him very much!!! S H I T !!!
Again...what so special about sinkaporeans that were bullied by dirty ways of acountings?
Mr Khaw, by making the foreigners to pay S$26.56 more what so big deal? Knn, I wasted my 2.5 years full time National Service and 13 years in-camp training. Today, this the only difference as compare to a foreigner or a PR. -
It's just a news that lets singkaporeans to accept the GST hike "due to better economy situations", like what Shutterbig had said, "Abusive Mathematics"
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i dont believe their claim of subsidies anywhere.
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Shift attention away from GST.
My name is Tan Ah Teck and I am an honest man. -
Personally, I dun think it will have much effect. Established companies had already brought insurance for their employees, covering both Singaporeans and foreigners.
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Singaporeans will now have to pay medical insurance premiums for their domestic maids. Employers in construction industries will probably have to pay more, since more foreign workers in such industries require hospital care arising from industrial accidents.
I agree with the new policy. It's the right thing to do. However, I am a little concerned about the exemption for those presenting at the Emergency Department. I understand the government is kind enough to provide subsidies for emergency cases to prevent employers from hindering their injured workers from seeking treatment. But there is a danger that foreign workers might flood the A/E with non-emergency cases to get the subsidy.
I say remove the subsidy even for emergency treatment but impose stringent penalties for employers who do not bring their injuried workers to the hospital. Apart from fines, mandatory jail and caning will deter such errant employers. -
I think we can expect A & E to be cramped with FLs in the future.
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Token action.. always...
Half pail of crap... always.
Might as well don't do anything.. forget subsidy ...
DOTTV! -
The total difference is that , Now you have to pay more GST of your medical bills, and PRs and Foreigners have to Pay more also.
Does Pay and Pay Policy ring a bell here? -
If the 36 million dollars is used to subsidise sg people, that is NEWS.
But, $36 million dollars saved to give the poodle a raise ?
Same for the $$$ saved for the outsourcing.
Does not benefit the peasants as the cost is still increasing. -
Its just a ploy....only a ploy...all but a ploy.
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the gahmen think the local community dun know how to calculate the difference..
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you feel the heat in the poor lopesided economy of general inflation, more than half the population has 'red-eye' disease, the system too has felt the impact but they want more money for their pay increases and other losses in overseas ventures, what to do after GST? Money is always not enough!
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The major difference is we do National Service they don't...
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No difference for Singaporean; they still pay the same.
They just reduced the subsidies for foreigners, so they can make more money. -
Excellent article as usual! Thanks~
though the PAP government should also clarify EXACTLY how much of the tax revenues will be used to help the poor people (1%? 5%? how much exactly?) and in the wake of the NKF scandal, EXACTLY how efficient this avenue is going to be. (just as NKF's only $0.10 out of every dollar went to help the patients? the rest go into "administrative costs"?)
There is no point in raising revenue for any cause if the process is so inefficient that only a pathetic miniscule fraction of the amount actually helps the people who needs it.
Even then, the PAP must provide details on how much of the aid is disbursed to the poor. Remember the SP power vouchers for the needy which end up sitting in the town councils' offices? It is easy to pledge money for any cause and through bureaucratic processes, make it extremely difficult for the people who needs it to claim them - which drives them to eventually give up, just like the MRT suicide Mr Tan Jee Suan, who mysteriously stopped seeking aid before he committed suicide.
Also, they need to answer why in their opinion, they feel the need to raise GST to provide capital for investments? Isn't our singapore reserves sufficient by now? If the returns are as good as the PAP claims, then why is there a further need to increase the tax burden on the people? In fact, the GST tax should be LOWERED with the additional lurcrative income from their excellent investments! -
i agree. the only difference this change makes is they squeeze everyone instead of just singaporeans.Originally posted by maurizio13:No difference for Singaporean; they still pay the same.
They just reduced the subsidies for foreigners, so they can make more money. -
If you cannot get anymore out of Singaporeans, naturally you will target another group.Originally posted by dragg:i agree. the only difference this change makes is they squeeze everyone instead of just singaporeans.
Voila, they have a huge reservoir of foreign workers and foreign talents to continue squeezing money from. -
GTS Hike!
dun get distracted.