Clarification by Member

6.59 pm

Mr Speaker: Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): I had made a request for Ms He Ting Ru to make her clarification before the next Bill is debated.

Mr Speaker: Oh yes, that is right. I beg your pardon. Ms He Ting Ru.

Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang): Thank you for allowing me to make this clarification. I have checked my records and notes and referred to a recent case of a resident who came to seek help during my Meet-the-People session earlier this year. I subsequently wrote in to CPF for assistance with this.

Due to his medical conditions, he was prescribed various medications for these chronic conditions which, despite the various subsidies and claims of MediSave available to him, he was unable to avoid paying in full as there remained a residual cash payment that he was required to make. He, therefore, hoped to be able to increase the claimable limits by an additional $500 and this was the request that I conveyed. He also said to me that because of his situation, he previously asked for medications to be deleted because he could not afford it. This is also contained in my letter.

As of now, I cannot say for certain if CPF has responded to this particular appeal as I would need to access my physical records to check if a reply letter has been sent by CPF.

Mr Speaker, this case is a specific example of a resident who made a request to cut back on medications as they believe they cannot afford it, perhaps due to a lack of awareness of the help available or else, a lack of confidence in making the necessary applications and appeals.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Koh Poh Koon): Mr Speaker, I thank Ms He Ting Ru for adding more context to the anecdote that she shared in the speech. I note that she has referred this resident of hers, who has issues with out-of-pocket charges, to CPF for further assistance. Might I suggest that, actually, that might not be the correct place for referring the patient for further help.

Let me just give some background. In 2021, after we enhanced MediSave to allow $700 per year of claims, we note that, in our database, about nine in 10 of patients who used MediSave for their Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP) or chronic medical conditions actually do not reach the limit. So, this particular resident may well have fallen out of the scheme, or it could be one where the medications are more unique and special.

I raise this because I was a little bit concerned that in the Member's speech, the Member made this claim that the patients choose to cut down on the dosages and I thought that would not be medically sound. Because most doctors would not reduce a dose of medication. They may reduce the duration but, certainly, not the dosage.

In this case, I think if this patient has residual out-of-pocket costs that he or she is unable to bear, may I suggest the Member perhaps may send me the details of this patient. We can take a look and see how we can actually bring the resources that he or she might not be aware of, because there could be alternative medications, there could well be more subsidised medications in our polyclinics. In fact, if this patient is elderly, 75% of our outpatient charges are already subsidised. If the elderly patient is in the Merdeka or Pioneer Generations, he will get at least a further 50% or 25%, depending on whether Pioneer or Merdeka Generation subsidies.

So, I think we will try all our means to help this patient get access to the care that he or she needs. And I would appreciate if Ms He Ting Ru can send me the details of this patient.

Ms He Ting Ru: Sure. Thank you very much for your clarification.