The MediShield Life Review Committee (MLRC) released its final report today to conclude its review of the MediShield Life scheme. The Singapore Government has accepted its recommendations and will implement MediShield Life for all Singaporeans by end 2015.
The Labour Movement supports MediShield Life as it will provide all Singaporeans with better protection against large medical bills and assure Singaporeans that they are covered for life. This will reduce out-of-pocket expenses and give greater peace of mind to Singaporeans.
We welcome MLRC's recommendations to improve MediShield Life coverage. We appreciate the Government's commitment to help Singaporeans and workers with premium subsidies, and find it reassuring that premiums will be fully covered by Medisave contributions.
Making Healthcare Affordable and Accessible
The Labour Movement is pleased to note that MLRC has suggested for the Ministry of Health to consider including outpatient treatments under MediShield Life when suitable, such as when new treatments are developed and there is sufficient evidence on patient outcomes and effectiveness. This point was raised earlier in our recommendations on MediShield Life, which were made public on 14 April 2014. (Link here for media release)
We also suggested earlier to include more drugs into the Standard Drug List after they have been used regularly and effectively for a certain period of time. We are glad that MLRC has also cited for Singapore to build up capabilities to evaluate the cost effectiveness of medical practices, technologies and drugs. The report called for public hospitals to take the lead through more widespread adoption of cost-effective and proven treatments and use of generic drugs where available.
Ensuring Relevance in MediShield Life
The Labour Movement has reiterated its position on getting more companies onboard the Portable Medical Benefits Scheme (PMBS) as a possible way of reducing duplication in medical insurance coverage. Employers should consider taking up portable medical benefits that ride on MediShield Life or provide additional Medisave contributions to help their workers pay for MediShield Life or Integrated Shield Plan premiums.
We have earlier called on the Government and employers to review and find ways to remove duplication of coverage and are heartened that MLRC has heeded our call to review the potential duplication of medical insurance benefits.
In addition, the Labour Movement welcomes the recommendation for the Government to improve the existing regulatory and accountability framework for Integrated Shield Plans and their approved insurers, including enhancing responsible selling requirements, e.g., requiring insurer representatives to explain how Integrated Shield Plan premiums increase with age.
The Labour Movement held eight focus group discussions in March and April 2014 with over 300 participants from our various communities such as union leaders, youths, families, active agers, women, the self-employed, freelancers and pensioners. Our recommendations on MediShield Life were made public on 14 April 2014.
We look forward to the Government's plans to step up outreach and public education efforts on healthcare financing. We will work with our tripartite partners to convey the full recommendations to our workers.
Cham Hui Fong
Assistant Secretary-General
National Trades Union Congress
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