Paul Tambyah to speak at PSP’s forum on healthcare costs

SINGAPORE: The Progress Singapore Party is hosting a forum on healthcare costs from 2:30 to 5:30 on the afternoon of Sept 7th. It will take place at Palms Bistro on Anson Road.

Tea with PSP: A Forum on Paying for Healthcare will feature Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah as a special guest. He is a specialist in infectious diseases and the Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party.

Prof Tambyah is also the president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection and the International Society for Infectious Diseases. He is connected with the National University Hospital and the National University of Singapore.

According to a poster from the PSP, the forum is a fundraiser that focuses on better healthcare financing for Singaporeans amid rising costs. Tickets to the event are S$200 per person.

The poster also lists three key topics at the forum:

Equity: Reducing the financial burden of medical care

Excellence: Expanding access to high-quality healthcare

Efficiency: Addressing the political landscape for cost-effective healthcare.

Since the forum has limited seats, PSP encourages the public to reserve their seats as soon as possible.

An article in The Business Times from June 1 noted that medical costs have been going up every year in Singapore. According to data from WTW, an advisory company, the average cost of medical care is expected to increase by nearly 10.7 per cent this year.

This is higher than in 2023 when they rose by 10.3 per cent.

In the last 20 years, the costs for medical and dental treatment in Singapore have increased by almost 78 per cent, over 2.9 per cent per year, according to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Meanwhile, the 20-year inflation rate of the MAS Core Inflation Measure is only around half of this, at 1.5 per cent per annum.

The government has also increased its spending on healthcare costs. In 2009, it was S$3.7 billion. This rose to S$15.2 billion in 2020. By 2030, it is projected to cost S$27 billion, CNA reported earlier this year.

The Ministry of Health says that Singapore spends around 4 per cent of its GDP on healthcare each year.

This is considerably lower than in other countries. The United Kingdom allocates 8 per cent of its GDP toward healthcare, and the United States allocates 16 per cent of its GDP toward healthcare.

Nevertheless, MOH points out that Singapore’s health outcomes are “comparable with many developed countries.”

More information on PSP’s forum may be found here. /TISG

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