PERCENTAGE OF SPENDING ON MENTAL HEALTH, DIABETES AND AGEING VERSUS TOTAL HEALTHCARE SPENDING IN 2018 AGAINST AMOUNT BUDGETED FOR 2019

Nominated Member of Parliament
Anthea Ong

To ask the Minister for Health for 2018 (actual) and 2019 (budgeted), what is the percentage of spend on (i) mental health versus total healthcare spend (ii) diabetes versus total healthcare spend and (iii) ageing versus total healthcare spend.

Answer 

Based on the latest available expenditure data, MOH’s operating expenditure for financial year 2017 was $8.7 billion, of which about 3%, 11% and 6% were spent on mental health, diabetes mellitus and aged care respectively.

MOH’s expenditure on mental health comprises operating subvention to Institute of
Mental Health, psychiatry units in other Public Healthcare Institutions and intermediate
& long-term care facilities to provide subsidised patient care, as well as funding for
various programmes under the National Mental Health Blueprint and Community Mental
Health Masterplan. The figures do not include Government’s funding for other mental
health initiatives such as school allied educators to provide students with counselling and related support.

MOH’s expenditure on diabetes mellitus comprises operating subvention to public
healthcare institutions and participating CHAS clinics to provide subsidised care to
patients with diabetes as well as health promotion activities under the War on Diabetes.
MOH’s expenditure on ageing comprises operating subvention to long-term care and
social aged care facilities to provide patient subsidies for residential, day care and home
care services. It does not include government funding on other ageing initiatives or
subsidies provided to the Pioneer Generation and Merdeka Generation which are
separately catered for under the Pioneer Generation Fund and Merdeka Generation Fund respectively.

Notes to qns 14:
The FY17 actual expenditure have been rounded to the nearest ten million