Considerations of Hospital Committees in Assessing MediFund Assistance Requests

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Health what are the specific operational guidelines that are not eligibility criteria, including income thresholds and the number of recipients per household, provided by the Ministry to the MediFund committees as they consider requests for assistance.

While the Ministry of Health provides guidelines on MediFund assessment, such as means-testing and amount of assistance provided, the MediFund Committees have full discretion to deviate from these guidelines and take into account other factors and family circumstances when assessing applications. There are no guidelines on the number of MediFund recipients per household.