Debated in Parliament on 4 Feb 2020.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the vaccination take-up rate for adults for conditions like pneumococcal disease and influenza after the launch of the National Adult Immunisation Schedule in 2017; and (b) how do our rates of adult vaccination compare with other developed countries.
MOH established the National Adult Immunisation Schedule, or NAIS, in November 2017 to provide guidance on important vaccinations for adults. These vaccinations include catch-up vaccinations and vaccinations that high-risk adults should receive. To encourage more Singaporeans to get vaccinated, MediSave may be used to pay for NAIS vaccinations.
MOH does not have comprehensive data on the total number of adult Singaporeans who have taken up NAIS recommended vaccinations. However, based on MediSave claim data, MediSave use for flu vaccination in adults has almost doubled from 39,000 in 2017 to 74,000 in 2018. MediSave use for pneumococcal vaccinations increased from 9,000 to 12,000. Data from a recent National Population Health Survey indicated that the take-up rate for flu vaccinations in Singaporeans aged 65 years and above was about 24%.
While this increasing vaccination take-up rate is encouraging, we note that the take-up of adult vaccination is higher in countries where there are more established adult vaccination programmes. For example, the take-up rate of flu vaccinations for persons aged 65 years and above in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is about 70%. We can do more to promote adult vaccinations.
In July 2019, the HealthySG Taskforce recommended that to further boost adult vaccination rates, subsidies should be provided to help Singaporeans pay for NAIS recommended vaccinations. Details of these subsidies will be announced at a later date. The subsidies are targeted to be rolled out before end-2020. MOH is also planning a series of population-level vaccination awareness campaigns to increase awareness on the importance of vaccination.
I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for a very comprehensive answer. I think that information was very useful. Just one supplementary question, which is that, in determining the quantum of subsidies, does the Ministry actually do modelling whereby you look at the cost of MediFund, hospital subsidies and so on and so forth that will be saved if the vaccine take-up is increased? And you sort of use that as a way to calculate how large the subsidy should be, such that it is fiscally neutral or it may even be fiscally positive. Because it would seem to me that there would be savings as the vaccination take-up increases and that should be used as a basis to make these vaccines either highly subsidised or possibly even free in many cases.
I thank the Member for the comment. We will study his suggestion. We are in the midst of crafting the package and we will announce it when we have the details.
PAPERCUTS