No Respite from Rising Medical Costs

Before Budget 2013 was announced, many of us would have learned about the spike in our health insurance premiums either through the media or the letter from CPF.

Come March, Medishield premiums and integrated shield plan premiums will see a hefty increase. Because the Medisave withdrawal limit for each premium is up to $800 per insured person per policy year, any sum above $800 would have to be paid out-of-pocket.

Sigh.

If you are a Singaporean, you would be familiar with the saying that one can die but cannot fall sick in Singapore. Some of us might have said it in jest and our foreign friends might think it was an exaggeration.

Yet increasingly, high medical costs in Singapore is making this more of a painful reality than a joke. According to the Mindshare survey 2012, 72% of Singaporeans believe that “we cannot afford to get sick these days due to high medical costs.”

Has the Budget 2013 addressed this very real concern of Singaporeans?