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the costs of health care and hospitalisation due to rapid population
ageing will be a major challenge in Asia. The elderly consumes
a disproportionate share of health care due to an increased
prevalence of diseases that are chronic and more severe. Such
incidences will exert economic pressures that are also likely
to be aggravated by the introduction of life-sustaining but
costly medical technologies.
Today,
Singapore's elderly aged 65 years and above represents 7.2%
of its population. This proportion will increase to 18.4%
in 2030. In absolute numbers, this means that Singapore will
have about 800,000 people aged 65 years and above in 2030.
Demands on health services will increase, as the elderly are
more likely to face additional health problems as they age.
Of particular concern is that an average Singaporean male
will spend eight years of his life in disability and a woman,
10 years. The CPF Medisave or MediShield schemes do not cover
long-term care either in a nursing home or at home, nor do
other health insurance plans as they provide mainly for hospitalisation
benefits. These days, the average cost of medical care in
a nursing home ranges from $800 to $3,600 per month. It has
been estimated that about 8% of Singapore's elderly population
will require long-term institutional care.
In Singapore,
there is the official policy of enlarging the scope of mandatory
savings to cover other areas that would be consistent with
the social objective of providing old age security. And one
of the areas is health care coverage, especially to protect
the older population against the high costs of hospitalisation.
Traditional health care financing through taxation or personal
payments would be inadequate to pay for good quality health
care. Therefore, other additional financial methods such as
social insurance or mandatory savings have had to be implemented
to meet the anticipated rising costs of medical care in the
future.
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