I refer to the article “Family allowed to pay $130,000 hospital bill in monthly instalment over 42 years” (New Paper, Oct 16).
It states that “A 42-year arrangement. That is what the Ting familyhas with KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) to settle their three-year-old boy’s medical bill.
This is the first time a hospital here has allowed a large medical bill to be broken up into interest-free monthly instalment payments over such a long period.
The bill came to a whopping $130,000 after the boy was treated for meningitis. He is now recovering at home, but his parents, Malaysians who are permanent residents here, could not pay up.”
The boy’s mother, housewife Koh Tat Hong, 34, said: “We were happy when we received a letter last month from the hospital informing us we could make payment in monthly instalments of $250.”
The question that was not asked is how is it that a child’s hospitalisation in a public hospital for a total of 50 days with 24 days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can cost $130,000?
Could it be that because he was referred from a private clinic, he was automatically put in Class B1, instead of Class C or B2, despite their financial cirscumstances?
As the child’s father is a container truck driver earning only about $1,000 a month and his wife is not working, even the $250 monthly instalment for 42 years may be a heavy burden to the family.
Healthcare affordable?
This case may highlight the issue of the affordability of healthcare in Singapore.
In this regard, let’s look at some healthcare statistics and issues in Singapore as follows:-
Hospitals owed $110 million
1)The last available statistic was that public hospitals were owed about $110 million, after writing off about $90 million in FY 2008, FY 2009 and FY 2010
21% in debt due to healthcare?
2)The last available statistic was that about 21 per cent of Singaporeans who sought help from Credit Counseling Singapore cited healthcare costs as one of the reasons for getting into debt
Down-grading 99% unsuccessful?
3)The last time a reply was given in Parliament, about 99 per cent of down-grading requests to a lower ward class in hospitals were unsuccessful due to means testing
Lowest public healthcare spending in the world?
4)Last year’s public spending on healthcare at about 1.6 percent of GDP is one of the lowest in the world
Public sector spending declined to 40%?
5)Public sector spending on healthcare, as a percentage of total healthcare spending, has declined from about 75 percent to about 40 percent now
$86m Medifund surpluses transferred to protected reserves?
6)The Government has transferred about $86 million of Medifund surpluses to the Protected Reserves over the past decade or so. Medifund cannot be used for outpatient Polyclinic treatment
No subsidy for workplace accidents?
7)The Workmen’s Injury Act was amended a few years ago to reduce employers’ and insurers’ liability for medical expenses arising from workplace accidents to $25,000. But according to the Ministry of Health (MOH), medical fees from five percent of industrial accidents exceed this cap, placing an unfair and potentially debilitating financial burden on employees.
Currently, ‘subsidised wards’ are actually not subsidised if you are hospitalised due to a workplace injury. This means that patients may pay as much as five times more to stay in a Class C ward
Relentless rise in hospitalisation fees?
8)Hospital fees have increased by as much as double over the past four years or so. A major reason for this is that the Government reimburses public hospitals based on the MOH’s average treatment type subsidy computation. Yet hospitals are still free to charge higher prices and pass the difference on to patients. Instead, the Government should reimburse hospitals for the actual subsidy shown in medical bills
Medifund 99% successful?
9)MOH discloses the number of successful Medifund applications (480,000 in 2010), but not the number of patients rejected. What is the percentage of Medifund patients (not total applications) that are rejected when they can not pay their medical bills?
Medifund criteria?
10)Make public the criteria for approving Medifund applications
Complete standard drugs list?
11)Disclose a complete “Standard Drugs List”.
Patients should be able to know in advance which drugs are subsidised and by how much with or without means testing as the cae may be, and which are not
Nursing homes fees increase?
12)MOH has increased subsidises for nursing home care and absorbed the goods and services tax for subsidised patients from July to ensure that nuring home care remains affordable, with the maximum subsidy of 80 per cent for the lowest income patients. However, what this means is that one has still to pay the balance 20 per cent of whatever the newly increased fees are, unless the Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO) nursing home is able get sufficient donations.
0 increase in hospital beds in a decade
13)According to the Department of Statistics’ Yearbook of Statistics 2012, the total number of hospital beds in Singapore declined from 11,936 in 2001 to 11,394 in 2011, against an increase in the number of hospital admissions from 384,054 to 469,445 a year, increase in medical tourists to about 850,000 a year and a population increase of about 1.1 million
MediShield: Premiums, deductibles, surpluses up?
14)MediShield premiums will increase by 450, 511 and 309 per cent compared to 2005, for age 30, 50 and 70 respectively. (“It’s worth paying more for quality health care”, Straits Times, Jul 21)
This is an annualised increase of 24, 25 and 19 per cent per annum, over the eight years.
The deductibles have also increased by as much as 200 per cent since 2005, despite accumulated MediShield reserves growing from $205 to $530 million, from 2008 to 2010, an increase of 158 per cent
Nursing home arrears?
15)There have been media reports that about half of the 110 patients in a home for the elderly had defaulted on their payments, which range from about one to two months.
If about half of the patients are in default in one nursing home, how many in total are in default in Singapore?
Leong Sze Hian
