Press Releases
MOH pumps additional $10 million over five years to help needy children with healthcare costs
22 January 2013
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From 1 March 2013, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will set aside $8 million annually under a new Medifund Junior scheme for needy Singaporean children aged below 18 to tap on to defray their healthcare cost. This will require an additional $10 million in Medifund assistance over 5 years, to supplement the funds that are currently available. MOH will review whether the amount is sufficient thereafter.
2 Needy families with children will be able to draw on Medifund Junior for assistance with their healthcare bills at the public hospitals. By creating Medifund Junior, MOH can target more financial assistance for sick children from needy families. This will also help defray costs incurred by children diagnosed with congenital or neonatal conditions before 1 March 2013.
3 Medifund Junior is the latest enhancement to Singapore’s healthcare financing system which is reviewed regularly to keep healthcare affordable and accessible for Singaporeans. Other recent changes include MediShield enhancements to provide longer and better coverage for large medical bills.
Support for Children’s Healthcare Costs
4 To provide all children with early insurance protection from birth, MOH will be extending MediShield coverage to congenital and neonatal conditions from 1 March 2013. With this extension, all Singaporean newborns born on or after 1 March 2013 will automatically be covered by MediShield from birth, without having to be assessed for pre-existing conditions, if their parents do not opt them out. This will help relieve parents’ financial burden if their child should fall sick and incur a large medical bill. All existing policyholders will automatically receive coverage for any congenital conditions diagnosed on or after 1 March 2013. This extension will be implemented together with previous MediShield enhancements announced earlier.
5 To support Singaporean families in retaining continuous MediShield protection for their newborns, the Government will set up a Medisave account and deposit a one-off Medisave grant of $3,000 over two tranches for all newborn Singapore citizens born on or after 26 August 2012. The Medisave grant is intended to pay for the child’s MediShield premiums and to help defray some of the child’s other healthcare expenses such as vaccinations and hospitalisations. These MediShield and Medisave initiatives were announced as part of the enhancements to the Marriage & Parenthood Package on 21 Jan 2013. Letters containing information about the applicable MediShield and Medisave enhancements will be sent to all eligible members over the next few months.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
22 JAN 2013
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