Over S$164mil given to needy for medical bills

The Medical endowment Fund (Medifund) provided more than S$164mil (Rm537mil) to needy Singaporeans to help them pay medical bills in financial year (FY) 2021, S$7.2mil (Rm23.5mil) more than the financial year before.

Medifund helps needy Singaporean patients who are unable to afford their medical bills after government subsidies, and insurance and Medisave deductions.

In FY 2021 – between April 2021 and March 2022 – there were more than 1.2 million successful applications, a 7.4% growth from the 1.15 million in FY 2020.

The Ministry of health said yesterday that the increase in assistance, up from S$156.9mil in FY 2020, was mainly due to a higher number of patient visits to public health institutions with the easing of Covid-19 safe management measures.

Most of the financial assistance was provided to patients in public health institutions, accounting for S$128.6mil of the total amount given out. This is up from S$120.3mil during FY 2020.

The remaining S$35.5mil was provided to patients in intermediate and long-term care facilities. This is a decrease from S$36.6mil in the financial year before.

MOH said the amount of Medifund assistance provided on average was S$912 per inpatient treatment and S$95 per outpatient treatment.

The fund was set up in 1993 while Medifund Silver and Medifund Junior, for the elderly and children respectively, were introduced in 2007 and 2013 to provide more targeted assistance. — The Straits Times/ann