Patients with chronic conditions can withdraw more from MediSave starting next year

Speaking in parliament on Thursday, where he was laying out his ministry's spending plans for the year, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said schemes like Flexi-MediSave and MediSave500/700 provide flexibility to pay for chronic disease management, scans or dentist visits – without overly diluting MediSave’s original objective of catering for big lumpy hospital bills in old age.

However, he acknowledged that the situation has changed since MediSave was implemented in 1984, as people in Singapore are now living longer.

"It continues to be important to preserve MediSave for big hospital bills. On the other hand, as people live longer, the need to spend on preventive care and chronic disease management also goes up," he said. 

Trade-offs are inherent in the MediSave scheme, he said, as using more balances for recurrent medical expenses means having less in the future when patients are hospitalised, and vice versa. 

"When the tension becomes too severe, we will have to consider raising contribution rates," he said.

"The tension is therefore deliberate and in the design of the scheme. It is a balance we must constantly and carefully manage, to ensure the system of co-payment is held together while ensuring affordability and keeping CPF contribution rates reasonable for all."