Singapore Health Insurance

The Singapore healthcare system aims to ensure affordability to its entire people and requires the individuals to take ownership of their own health. To ensure affordability, the Government requires all medical institutions to submit their bills according to conditions, procedures and ward class. This in turn promotes transparency and competition.

According to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems in 2000, Singapore was ranked 6th after France (1^st), Italy (2^nd), San Marino (3^rd), Andorra (4^th) and Malta (5^th). This makes Singapore No.1 in the Asia-Pacific region.

As at September 2010, 17 hospitals and medical centres in Singapore have obtained Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation. This accounts for one-third of all the JCI-accredited facilities in Asia. Beyond international certifications, the quality of healthcare and their success rates meet, if not exceed, international standards. Many of the world’s best-known medical centres, such as John Hopkins and The West Clinic, have set up in Singapore.

Singapore’s medical expertise made world’s headlines for many complex and innovative procedures such as the revolutionary "tooth-in-eye" surgical procedure to make a blind boy see again in 2004 and the successful separation of the 10-month-old Nepalese conjoined twins in 2001.

With many well-respected doctors trained in the best centres around the world, internationally-accredited hospitals and specialty centres, a global reputation as a medical convention and training centre, a fast-growing basic and clinical research hub, it is no wonder that Singapore has established itself as Asia’s leading medical hub.

Singapore has a range of policies that support health care, Haseltine said. For example, Singaporeans are required to have a health savings plan, called Medisave, that works like a 401K retirement savings plan in the U.S; the government sets both policies and prices for private insurance companies; health care costs for services and procedures must be completely transparent; there’s a minister of “wellness” who emphasizes the importance of a healthy diet and exercise and works to curb smoking; there are high health care subsidies for those with low incomes; and the government invests heavily in medical education.

There’s also a compulsory savings program for workers called the Central Provident Fund that can be used to pay for housing; as a result, 85% of Singaporeans own their own home. “That is a big social stabilizer, and a big stabilizer of health,” Haseltine said.

Haseltine acknowledged that the Singapore government’s heavy hand in the marketplace and in society wouldn’t go over well in the U.S. But he thinks that some health care ideas from Singapore could work here, such as mandatory health savings accounts, greater transparency about costs and prices, and more regulation of insurance company prices and policies.

Sometimes, Haseltine said, the right government policy can have a positive impact. “We have this whole suspicion of government, but that’s a really big mistake,” he said. Trusting the government to set enlightened policy is a big lesson the U.S. can learn from Singapore, he said.