Claims from Medisave for Overseas Elective Treatments

Mr Chen Show Mao asked the Minister for Health (a) how many patients have made claims from Medisave for overseas elective treatments each year since such use was approved; (b) how much has been claimed per year since such use was approved; (c) what is the breakdown of the treatments that claims have been made for; and (d) in cases where the treatments required hospitalisation, how many days of hospital stay per year do the claims represent.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: From March 2010, MOH allowed the use of Medisave for elective hospitalisations and day surgeries overseas to give Singaporeans additional choices of hospitals when considering elective treatments.

From 2010 to 2013, there were about 580 Medisave claims for overseas electives amounting to $1.5 million. The majority of the claims were for deliveries. On average, patients stayed about two days for the overseas hospitalisations.