Eligibility for Healthier SG Enrolment for Those with Pre-existing Health Conditions

Ms Hazlina Abdul Halim asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) whether persons with pre-existing conditions are excluded from Healthier SG enrolment; (b) if so, whether the Ministry will consider extending HealthierSG to Singaporean with pre-existing health conditions to ensure timely intervention and mitigation; and (c) what other alterative measures are in place for such individuals to receive appropriate support before their conditions become more severe.

Mr Speaker, persons with pre-existing health conditions are not excluded from Healthier SG enrolment. All Singapore residents aged 40 and above are eligible to enrol.

Ms Hazlina.

I thank the Minister of State. If I could ask for a clarification on one front. I understand that eligibility and screening eligibility versus enrolment eligibility is not the same. Would the Ministry consider a targeted or structured framework in which appeal mechanisms can be submitted? I understand that there is about one third of eligible enrollees who have yet to complete screening to develop their own health plan.

Mr Speaker, I would like to clarify a few things, because there are different concepts that the Member is referring to.

Firstly, in terms of enrolment. For enrolment, as we have said, 40 and above, they can enrol. Basically, they can go to general practitioners, they can go to polyclinics. But enrolment itself requires the act of actually going to the doctor to do the health plan. Just signing up is not enough. So, it is that next step of doing the first health plan.

With that health plan, then your doctor can advise you on what are some of the tests you need to do, what are the further follow-ups, what are the things that you need to comply with. If there are chronic conditions that are existing, then there will also be more specific and more guided support provided by the Healthier SG primary care providers.

Then, separately, screening. This is a separate consideration, because for each type of condition, the different screening comes into play depending on conditions. There are some guidelines that are given. It is a function of your age typically and what are some of the existing conditions you may have, so you may then be triggered to go for those screenings.

I am not not quite sure what situations the Member is referring to. If there are some specific conditions where patients feel that they are not getting the support that they need, or they are needing to go for certain screening and they are not allowed to because they are ineligible, perhaps she could surface some of those cases and we could take a look.