Affordability of health/welfare state (Research 1)

A government distributes its resources to meet the needs of the people in the country. Healthcare is one such need a government provides for its citizens. However, healthcare needs differs from country to country. The amount of resources used also differs. Allowing people to be able to afford for healthcare is a challenge for most governments because of the need to provide basic healthcare for the sick even if they are unable to pay for it. Healthcare is a public good which governments have to provide for people, given the limited resources and competing needs of the country. . For example, in the rural areas, diseases like measles, malaria and cholera are common. However, they do not have basic healthcare facilities to treat them.
In Singapore, the government encourage self responsibility and community support. At the same time, the government would maintain the policies of healthcare to keep it affordable. One of the measures is through Medisave. A certain amount of money from their CPF will be channelled to the Medisave accounts. The money can be used for paying hospitals bills or medical treatments. This way, individuals are encouraged to be self reliant while government provides safety nets to ensure that healthcare remains affordable. As healthcare is a public good, no one should be in a situation where he is not given healthcare because he can't afford it. Therefore, Medifund is set up to provide help to those who are not able to pay for healthcare. Patients who need help can apply for the fund at the hospital where they are being treated.
One of the concerns in keeping healthcare affordable for Singaporeans is that subsidies provided by the government should benefit patients who need them the most. Resources should be more fairly distributed cannot pay for healthcare get the most subsidies.
To ensure that healthcare remains affordable for most Singaporeans, especially for lower-income group, the government gives difference rates of subsidies to different classes of wards in hospitals.