<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>More patients will qualify for higher subsidy
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Health Minister reveals tweaks to means testing at community hospitals </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
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Elderly folk getting eye checks at the Paya Lebar Wellness Centre, which Health Minister Khaw visited during his community walkabout yesterday. The centre gives the aged health tests for a nominal fee. --ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->IF YOUR neighbour's per-capita family income is $300 a month, the Government will pick up three-quarters of the bill for his stay at a community hospital.
But if your total family income divided by the number of family members is just $50 more - at $350 - your bill will be subsidised by only half.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>Slim down during slump
'If you are a little bit overweight, please think about slimming down. Honestly, if you are obese and you have a poor work attitude, and I'm an employer and I have so many people applying for jobs, you think I will pick you unless you have some special skills that nobody has? If your skills are just like anybody else and there are 10 of them and the rest are slim, look young and energetic, whereas you are obese or smoking - which is worse - that will be tough, right?'
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan urging Singaporeans to use the lighter workload during the downturn as an opportunity to start a healthy lifestyle.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>So if you and your neighbour stay a month and each run up a $2,800 bill, you will be out of pocket by $700 more, though you are not much more well off.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced yesterday a move to iron out the discrepancy by introducing more income tiers to be used to determine the size of subsidy for patients in community hospitals. The change will come by July.
Community hospitals, which cater to recovering patients who do not need acute-care, have had their subsidies calibrated by income since 2000.
With the means test, subsidies have been set at 25 per cent, 50 per cent and 75 per cent.
Although a patient's bill can be covered by MediShield insurance and Medi- save, Mr Khaw said that setting the subsidy variations at 10 percentage-point intervals up to 75 per cent would be fairer.
This way, when a person misses a particular income level by a few dollars, the amount of subsidy he loses out on will be equal to only 10 per cent of the bill.
Mr Khaw said he did not think the means test for community hospitals should be the same as for public hospitals, where the difference in subsidies is just one percentage point.
This is because community hospital bills are not as big, as the cost of running such a hospital is only about a third that of a public hospital.
Last year, the subsidies handed out to about 3,000 patients at five community hospitals came to $26 million.
With the tweak to the subsidy structure, another $4 million will need to be set aside, since more patients will become eligible for higher subsidies.
Permanent residents (PRs) will get 10 percentage points less in subsidies than citizens with the same income. Such a differentiation is already present in general hospitals and polyclinics.
The five community hospitals run by voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) that get government subsidies are Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan, Bright Vision, Ren Ci, St Andrew's and St Luke's.
The sixth, Kwong Wai Shui Hospital, subsidises its patients from donations.
Mrs Josephine Teo a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said the move 'will definitely be easier on the pocket'.
'I think it's reassuring to them that they will get a fairer assessment of their ability to afford step-down care. I hope this change will also apply to existing patients since they are the ones who are feeling the impact.'
Community hospitals have been in the news lately following fairly big increases in their charges. Mr Khaw, in a dialogue at the end of his community visit to Paya Lebar, was asked about the fee hikes. Why doesn't the Government take over community hospitals, a resident asked.
He said: 'It's not important for the Government to run the hospitals. It's more important for the Government to subsidise. We'll always be there to help.'
He added that it was unfortunate the community hospitals had to raise their rates now, after having held them steady for five to six years. He noted that if the VWOs had done so, 'they must be in deep trouble', so his ministry would look into helping them cope. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Health Minister reveals tweaks to means testing at community hospitals </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Elderly folk getting eye checks at the Paya Lebar Wellness Centre, which Health Minister Khaw visited during his community walkabout yesterday. The centre gives the aged health tests for a nominal fee. --ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->IF YOUR neighbour's per-capita family income is $300 a month, the Government will pick up three-quarters of the bill for his stay at a community hospital.
But if your total family income divided by the number of family members is just $50 more - at $350 - your bill will be subsidised by only half.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>Slim down during slump
'If you are a little bit overweight, please think about slimming down. Honestly, if you are obese and you have a poor work attitude, and I'm an employer and I have so many people applying for jobs, you think I will pick you unless you have some special skills that nobody has? If your skills are just like anybody else and there are 10 of them and the rest are slim, look young and energetic, whereas you are obese or smoking - which is worse - that will be tough, right?'
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan urging Singaporeans to use the lighter workload during the downturn as an opportunity to start a healthy lifestyle.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>So if you and your neighbour stay a month and each run up a $2,800 bill, you will be out of pocket by $700 more, though you are not much more well off.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced yesterday a move to iron out the discrepancy by introducing more income tiers to be used to determine the size of subsidy for patients in community hospitals. The change will come by July.
Community hospitals, which cater to recovering patients who do not need acute-care, have had their subsidies calibrated by income since 2000.
With the means test, subsidies have been set at 25 per cent, 50 per cent and 75 per cent.
Although a patient's bill can be covered by MediShield insurance and Medi- save, Mr Khaw said that setting the subsidy variations at 10 percentage-point intervals up to 75 per cent would be fairer.
This way, when a person misses a particular income level by a few dollars, the amount of subsidy he loses out on will be equal to only 10 per cent of the bill.
Mr Khaw said he did not think the means test for community hospitals should be the same as for public hospitals, where the difference in subsidies is just one percentage point.
This is because community hospital bills are not as big, as the cost of running such a hospital is only about a third that of a public hospital.
Last year, the subsidies handed out to about 3,000 patients at five community hospitals came to $26 million.
With the tweak to the subsidy structure, another $4 million will need to be set aside, since more patients will become eligible for higher subsidies.
Permanent residents (PRs) will get 10 percentage points less in subsidies than citizens with the same income. Such a differentiation is already present in general hospitals and polyclinics.
The five community hospitals run by voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) that get government subsidies are Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan, Bright Vision, Ren Ci, St Andrew's and St Luke's.
The sixth, Kwong Wai Shui Hospital, subsidises its patients from donations.
Mrs Josephine Teo a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said the move 'will definitely be easier on the pocket'.
'I think it's reassuring to them that they will get a fairer assessment of their ability to afford step-down care. I hope this change will also apply to existing patients since they are the ones who are feeling the impact.'
Community hospitals have been in the news lately following fairly big increases in their charges. Mr Khaw, in a dialogue at the end of his community visit to Paya Lebar, was asked about the fee hikes. Why doesn't the Government take over community hospitals, a resident asked.
He said: 'It's not important for the Government to run the hospitals. It's more important for the Government to subsidise. We'll always be there to help.'
He added that it was unfortunate the community hospitals had to raise their rates now, after having held them steady for five to six years. He noted that if the VWOs had done so, 'they must be in deep trouble', so his ministry would look into helping them cope. [email protected]
