Will the programs truly benefit the locals ?
How many millions have been blown on foreigners?
The downswinging of the economy is taking the bite already.
Dont be hoodwinked.
Dec 11, 2006
Foreigners' medical subsidies to be cut
Fee hikes next Oct will save Govt $36m a year; PRs will also pay
more
By Lee Hui Chieh & Lynn Lee
FROM October next year, foreign workers here will have to pay the
full cost of all medical treatment they receive at public
hospitals.
A day's stay in a B2- of C-class ward, for example, will cost them
$150 to $200, up from about $25 to $50 now.
To help pay for the bigger medical bills, foreign workers will
likely be covered by a compulsory medical insurance scheme which
the Government is now studying.
Permanent residents will also start paying more next year. Their
bills will go up by 5 percentage points from October, followed by a
similar jump 12 months later.
Over two years, a PR's average specialist outpatient clinic bill,
which is now about $80 to $100, will go up to $88 to $110.
The fee hikes will apply to charges for B1-, B2- and C-class wards,
and for day surgery and specialist outpatient clinic visits.
The only exception is when anyone turns up at hospital emergency
departments - the fees will be the same for all, regardless of
nationality or citizenship.
About 875,500 foreigners and 480,000 PRs will be affected by the
changes. They were announced by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan
yesterday after he toured a traditional Chinese medicine fair held
by Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao and Chong Pang Community Club.
The cuts will save the Government an estimated $36 million a year,
which will be ploughed back into health-care subsidies for a
greying population, said Mr Khaw.
The move to reduce the medical subsidies that non-citizens now
enjoy is part of an effort to 'treat visitors well, but citizens
better' - an assurance Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave last
weekend at the People's Action Party's delegates conference.
Cuts in education subsidies for foreigners are likely to be
next.
Explaining the need for a change in hospital charges, Mr Khaw said:
'When we started treating all foreign workers like Singaporeans
many years ago, the numbers were small. But over the years, as you
can see, the economy, the structure, has changed and the numbers of
foreign workers will continue to grow...
'It is not an insignificant sum - $36 million per year. We will
plough it back to subsidise the growing number of elderly
Singaporeans.'
Last year, public hospitals saw about 10,000 admissions of foreign
workers and a similar number of PRs. Together, they made up about 9
per cent of subsidised admissions.
Foreign workers and PRs also accounted for about 7 per cent of the
total number of subsidised patients who underwent day surgery or
were seen to at specialist outpatient clinics last year.
For polyclinic treatment, non-citizens started paying more from
January this year. Foreign workers now pay the full consultation
fee of $16 and PRs pay $12, up from $8 they used to pay, like the
citizens.
Foreign workers' subsidies are being removed because it is unfair
for Singaporeans to subsidise them, Mr Khaw said.
At a separate community event yesterday, outgoing labour chief Lim
Boon Heng said that feedback from the unions was that employers
enjoyed an advantage now by hiring foreign workers over locals,
because the state helped out with their medical bills.
By removing the subsidy, the employer would be paying the full cost
of employing a foreign worker and 'not have this distortion to tilt
the ground in favour of foreign workers', he said.
But if foreigners ran into trouble with their medical bills even if
they were insured, Mr Khaw had this assurance: 'Having bought
insurance, and for whatever reasons, the bill is so big that you
can't afford, then we will find some ways to help out.'
WTF, S$36,000,000.00 divided by
(875,500 foreigners + 480,000 PRs) = S$26.558 per person. So this
is the difference below..
Big news for Foreigners/PRS!!!!! Fhank him very much!!! S H I T
!!!
Again...what so special about sinkaporeans that were bullied by
dirty ways of acountings?
Mr Khaw, by making the foreigners to pay S$26.56 more what so big
deal? Knn, I wasted my 2.5 years full time National Service and 13
years in-camp training. Today, this the only difference as compare
to a foreigner or a PR.
