On Thursday (29 Nov), the Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a press release saying that the government provided a total of $149.8 million to the needy Singaporeans from MediFund last year (FY17).
MediFund assists needy Singaporean patients who are unable to afford their medical bills, after government subsidies, MediShield Life and MediSave. If a patient still has money in his MediSave, it would be taken to pay for his mediacal bills first. Hence, MediFund is really the last resort for those needy and desperate Singaporean patients.
MediFund ensures that no Singaporean will be denied appropriate medical care due to an inability to pay, MOH said. But of course, it’s only for desperate Singaporeans who are really broke.
In total, 1,179,525 MediFund applications were approved.
On average, the amount of MediFund assistance provided was $953 per inpatient treatment, and $85 per outpatient treatment.
Also, MOH said that presently, MediFund has a total of $4.5 billion in the fund.