Singapore Insurance

Good news to all Medisave Account holders. Patients can now use Medisave to pay for private care abroad from next month onwards. This is limited to 12 hospitals and medical centres in Malaysia. However, patients will still have to be referred by two Singapore group centres first before they can seek treatment. The treatment has to be day surgery or in-hospital admissons. The two groups are Health Management International and Prakway Holdings. The referral centres for both are situated at Balestier Clinic and Health Screening Centre and East Shore Hospital respectively. This move would give Singaporeans more choice when it comes to seeking medical treatment overseas. The only question now is whether Medishield insurance coverage would also be extended to help pay for the bills overseas.

After certain groups were asking that Medisave be allowed for the detection of breast cancer, Health Minister has responded. I agree with his response and feel that medisave should be indeed kept for a rainy day instead. HEALTH Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday that he was 'sympathetic' towards the need for women to have mammograms, but said he was concerned about people depleting their Medisave accounts too quickly. Speaking after house visits where he helped distribute food hampers to 260 households in a rental block in Marsiling, he said: 'Don't forget, Medisave was for hospitalisation. It is for sick people - in fact, very sick people, who have bills of around $2,000.' He was responding to an appeal from Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua to let women use Medi-save to pay for breast cancer screenings. Mrs Lim said on Saturday that helping women aged 50 to 69 form a habit of screening for breast cancer every two years is a current priori...