Medical Insurance and Hospitalisation of Foreign Domestic Workers

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Manpower (a) over the last three years, how many foreign domestic workers have been hospitalised and how many of them have hospitalisation bills exceeding $15,000; and (b) what can be done to encourage insurance companies to provide employers of foreign domestic workers with options to purchase medical insurance with higher medical benefits for their foreign domestic workers.

Employers of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) are required to bear the cost of any medical treatment incurred by their FDWs so as not to transfer this cost to other taxpayers. To help employers meet this obligation, we make it compulsory for employers to buy medical insurance with a minimum cover of $15,000. Employers can voluntarily purchase higher insurance cover currently offered by insurance companies.

In the past three years, a total of 120 bills for day surgery and inpatient treatment incurred by FDWs at public hospitals, or about 2% of such bills, were above $15,000. This means that the current minimum cover of $15,000 is sufficient to fully cover 98% of day surgery and inpatient bills incurred by FDWs at public hospitals over this period.