Siblings Not Immediate Family

30 Jan 2004, The Straits Times

Question

Name of the Person: Aliza Buang (Ms)

Siblings Not Immediate Family

My fiance's brother was admitted to hospital recently.andnbsp; After he was discharged, my fiance tried to pay the bill using his Medisave but was told that the fund could only be used to pay for members of the immediate family: spouse, child, parent or grandparent.andnbsp; Where siblings are concerned, an appeal has to be made to the hospital for Medisave to be used.

Aren't siblings part of the immediate family?andnbsp; Where does this leave single persons who have exhausted theie Medisave accounts and have to depend on their siblings? Will they be denied hospitalisation as they might not be able to pay the bill?andnbsp; This is not an unlikely scenario, given the ageing population.

Reply

Name of the Person: Karen Tan (Ms)

Deputy Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Health

Usage of Medisave for non-immediate family members

We would like to thank Ms Aliza Buang (ST, 30 Jan) for her feedback on the use of Medisave for non-immediate family members.

Singaporeans may use their Medisave to pay for the medical expenses incurred by themselves or their immediate family members, such as their spouse, children, and parents. Medisave can also be used for non-immediate family members such as siblings, for example, if the non-immediate family member has depleted his own Medisave and is warded in a Class B2 or C ward in a restructured hospital. This is to safeguard against premature depletion of Medisave savings, which would be required for an individual's own as well as his immediate family's needs in old age.

However, if patients still face financial difficulties, they may seek assistance from the Medical Social Workers at the restructured hospitals. We would like to reassure the writer that no Singaporean will be denied medical treatment because of inability to pay.