Residents share concerns on rising population, and its impact on Singapore with WP’s Leon Perera

In his recent walk around the estate, The Workers’ Party member of parliament Leon Perera was met with questions of whether Singapore would be able to keep up if there is an increase in population and will impact the young ones and their children in future.

In his Facebook posting, the Aljunied GRC MP said, “A few constituents shared their concerns for the next generation if our population were to rise sharply, as happened in the first decade of the 2000s and shortly after.”

“Such a development would place pressure on the limited supply of housing, hospital beds, school places, COEs and other types of infrastructure.”

Perera went on to say that in the 2000s, the development of infrastructure was widely felt to be not keeping pace with the growth of the population. The current reality of high inflation no doubt feeds this concern.

Another resident, however, touched on the use of Medisave for the elderly, in which Perera reassured them that his party will be keeping an eye closely on this issue.

“One constituent expressed grave concern about Medisave utilization limits, since an aging population will run up more outpatient bills.  I shared that Workers’ Party MPs would monitor these issues and speak up for the interests of the people in Parliament,” explained the MP.

Fellow Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam had previously in his maiden speech in parliament called for ‘an inclusive healthcare support and improvements to the MediSave system to better aid those who suffer from chronic conditions’.

“I have two suggestions for MOH to consider. First, that MediSave withdrawals be allowed for the treatment of all chronic conditions, not just those on the Chronic Disease Management Programme list. This will ensure that no one is excluded just because they suffer from a less common chronic condition,” said Giam.

“Second, the annual withdrawal limits for MediSave should be removed for patients who have sufficient MediSave balances and are over the age of 60.” /TISG