Affordability of health/welfare state (Research 2)

Role of government is to keep healthcare affordable.

Giving direct subsidies to government hospitals, polyclinics and some nursing homes.
· Ensure healthcare remains affordable for most Singaporeans especially lower income group government gives different rate of subsidies to different classes of wards in hospitals.
· For example, patients who choose Class C wards in public hospitals only pay 20% of their hospital bills.
· The Singapore government pays the rest.
· Shows that government heavily subsidies hospital bills for certain wards.
· Wards with better facilities like B1 & B2 wards also get subsidized. But less than Class C wards.
· Ensures that Singaporeans will get subsidized medical treatment if they choose to be admitted to ‘C’ or ‘B’ Class wards in public hospitals.

Providing some healthcare services.
· Voluntary welfare organizations and some private organizations are given grants by government to run community hospitals, nursing homes and day rehabilitation centres for patients who are discharged from hospitals but still need medical care.
· By giving grants, these organizations will help to take care of the medical needs of elderly. Therefore government does not have to be fully responsible.
· These organizations operate by using government’s money and their own money to take care of them.
· This allows government to spend money on the healthcare needs of other age groups.

Providing support services.
· Government gives support to organizations that provides specific healthcare support such as, NKF & Singapore Chung Hwa Medical Institution.
· These healthcare services cater to needs of specific groups of people, such as the poor or those with particular illness.
· Therefore, community is part of ‘Many Helping Hands Approach’ to lighten burden of the government so that the government is not solely responsible for providing healthcare needs to its people.
· Moreover, government can focus on others needs of people.

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.