Inaugural South West Community Development Council Community Health Fair

15 Sep 2002

By Mr Lim Hng Kiang

Venue: JTC Summit

INTRODUCTION

I am happy to join you this morning at the inaugural Southwest Community Development Council Community Health Fair. The Community Development Council has organised this health fair to raise health awareness among its residents, especially those who are elderly.

MEETING THE HEALTHCARE NEEDS OF THE ELDERLY

Singapore?s population will age rapidly over the next 30 years. Today, only about 7% of our population are aged 65 and above. This number will increase to 19% by 2030. Meeting the healthcare needs of the elderly will be the Ministry of Health?s priority for many years to come. We want to ensure that elderly Singaporeans remain healthy and independent and have access to affordable healthcare when they need it. Today, I will like to share with you two schemes my Ministry has introduced recently to meet the healthcare needs of needy elderly, the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly (IDAPE) and Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS).

IDAPE

As our population ages, more would require long-term care because of severe disability arising from disease and illness. In June this year, my Ministry introduced ElderShield, an affordable insurance scheme that provides financial protection against severe disability. But there are those who cannot join ElderShield, because they are already disabled or are aged 70 or above when ElderShield is launched. My Ministry has introduced IDAPE to provide them financial assistance.

For this group, they need not pay any premiums but could receive IDAPE payouts if they are needy and are unable to perform at least 3 out of the 6 Activities of Daily Living ? washing, feeding, dressing, toileting, mobility and transferring. Those whose per capita monthly household income is $700 or below will receive $150 cash payout per month for up to 60 months, while those whose per capita monthly household income is $701 to $1,000 will receive $100 cash payout per month, similarly for up to 60 months. While these amounts may not be big, they go a long way to help the needy elderly and their families defray their care expenses.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain that the income criterion of $1,000 is not as stringent as commonly perceived. This is because it is calculated on a ?per capita? basis. Let me illustrate with an example. If a Mr Lee earns $4,000 a month and is a sole breadwinner in a household, and there are 4 persons living under the same roof, including himself, his wife, one elderly parent and a child, his ?per capita? monthly household income is $1,000 ($4,000 divided by 4). If his elderly parent is unable to perform 3 Activities of Daily Living, he could receive $100 a month under IDAPE. Many living in 1,2,3-room flats and some living in 4-room flats should be able to satisfy the income criterion for IDAPE. I thus expect many Singaporeans who already cannot perform at least 3 Activities of Daily Living to be able to benefit from IDAPE.

This has been borne out by the response to IDAPE thus far. Applications for IDAPE only started in July - 2 months ago. As at the first week of September, we have already received 1,438 IDAPE claims. Of these, 980 claims have been processed and 672 approved. This represents almost 70% of the claims processed.

Response is good but I am sure it could be better if more people know about the scheme. The Government has specially set aside $300 million to help the needy disabled. I hope that all those who qualify would come forward to benefit from the scheme.

PCPS

The Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) is another MOH initiative to bring affordable healthcare to the needy elderly. Under this scheme, needy elderly need not travel to a polyclinic but can seek medical and dental treatments at private GPs and dentists at polyclinic rates. Elderly Singaporeans aged 65 and above with per capita monthly household income of $700 or below would qualify.

The PCPS allows us to widen the public sector primary care network beyond our 17 polyclinics today to include some 600 GP and 220 dental clinics. It helps bring affordable healthcare closer to the doorsteps of elderly Singaporeans. The PCPS was piloted in October 2000 in four estates. It was implemented nation wide and extended to cover dental services in March this year. As at July this year, about 3,200 needy elderly have signed up and qualified for PCPS. Based on our experience in the pilot sites, each elderly typically uses the card and sees the doctor four times a year. So utilisation among those who have signed up is good. We hope more will come forward to sign up and benefit from the convenience the scheme offers.

CONCLUSION

As our experience with IDAPE and PCPS shows, we need to go beyond making healthcare affordable for the needy elderly to bringing affordable healthcare to them. Many of them do not read the newspapers and may not be aware of the new schemes that have been introduced. Their family and community can play a big part in spreading the good news. If you know of anyone, who could qualify for IDAPE or PCPS, tell them about the schemes and the benefits that await them. Better still, help them submit an application.

Today's Health Fair is a good effort by the Southwest Community Development Council to mobilise the community to bring health awareness to its residents. I wish all of you an enjoyable day at the fair.