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Medical Subsidies for PR to be Reduced
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced an overall reduction of healthcare subsidies for permanent residents (PR).
MOH will be reducing the healthcare subsidy for PRs for inpatient services i.e. Class B2 and C wards, day surgery and specialist outpatient clinics in the restructured hospitals. The reduction will be less for those earning less than $3200 a month but the cut will be more severe for the higher income bands.
As a example, at a subsidy of 59%, a person would need to pay 41% of the bill. If the subsidy is cut to 39.5% (a drop of 19.5%), he or she will now have to pay for 60.5% of the bill. This is almost an increase of a whopping 50% of the net bill!
There will also be a revision in the subsidies given to PR at community hospitals, long-term residential and home services. For this category, the subsidies will actually be slightly increased.
The changes will be made in two phrases, one in October 2012 and the other in April 2013.
With a greater distinction between the subsidies given to citizens and PRs, we might see a revision in premiums for the integrated shield plans to factor for the bill size difference that will come about.
To see the changes, you can refer to this subsidy table at the MOH website.