Percentage of Spending on Mental Health, Diabetes and Ageing versus Total Healthcare Spending in 2018 against Amount Budgeted for 2019

Ms Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Health for 2018 (actual) and 2019 (budgeted), what is the percentage of spend on (i) mental health versus total healthcare spend (ii) diabetes versus total healthcare spend and (iii) ageing versus total healthcare spend.

Based on the latest available expenditure data, MOH's operating expenditure for financial year 2017 was $8.7 billion, of which about 3%, 11% and 6% were spent on mental health, diabetes mellitus and aged care respectively.

MOH's expenditure on mental health comprises operating subvention to Institute of Mental Health, psychiatry units in other Public Healthcare Institutions and intermediate & long-term care facilities to provide subsidised patient care, as well as funding for various programmes under the National Mental Health Blueprint and Community Mental Health Masterplan. The figures do not include Government’s funding for other mental health initiatives such as school allied educators to provide students with counselling and related support.

MOH's expenditure on diabetes mellitus comprises operating subvention to public healthcare institutions and participating CHAS clinics to provide subsidised care to patients with diabetes as well as health promotion activities under the War on Diabetes.

MOH's expenditure on ageing comprises operating subvention to long-term care and social aged care facilities to provide patient subsidies for residential, day care and home care services. It does not include government funding on other ageing initiatives or subsidies provided to the Pioneer Generation and Merdeka Generation which are separately catered for under the Pioneer Generation Fund and Merdeka Generation Fund respectively.