ACCESS TO PUBLIC HEALTHCARE A KEY REASON FOR CHANGES TO IP RIDERS

We refer to Dr Chua Jun Jin’s letter, “Cost matters in healthcare, but so does timeliness” (Dec 8). We are glad that Dr Chua shares the Ministry of Health’s concern on accessibility and waiting times in public hospitals.

Over the years, more private hospital patients have been shifting to public hospitals, which account for 80 per cent of total hospital beds and cater to 90 per cent of hospital patients.

One key reason is that private hospital bills have been growing significantly, which drives up private insurance premiums, especially Integrated Shield Plan (IP) riders. As a result, every year, 100,000 IP rider policy holders cancelled or downgraded their plans. These individuals would potentially move over to public hospitals.

The recent changes to new purchases of IP riders are to arrest this trend, to help make private healthcare more affordable, public healthcare more accessible and the healthcare system more sustainable in the long term.

The changes will increase cost discipline over minor episodes, and reduce over-servicing and over-consumption associated with non-essential hospital admissions or treatments. While the co-payment for patients will be higher, this will be subject to a cap, and with MediSave, the cash outlay will be significantly offset.

In the short term, some private hospital patients may now choose to seek care at public hospitals to reduce their co-payment, especially for lower-cost procedures. However, by putting private healthcare costs and private healthcare insurance on a more sustainable path, we can hopefully moderate the pace of migration of patients from private to public hospitals.

Dr Chua also mentioned long waiting times for serious illnesses, like cancer, in public hospitals. We would like to add that serious conditions such as cancer are always prioritised.

Waiting times depend heavily on severity and urgency but, in 2024, the median waiting times for new cancer specialist outpatient appointments at public healthcare institutions, including for subsidised patients, ranged between four and eight days.

Lam Meng Chon (Dr)
Director, Hospital Services
Ministry of Health