Expanding Healthcare Insurance Coverage for Foreign Workers

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef asked the Minister for Manpower whether there will be a review of the healthcare insurance for foreign workers/ foreign domestic workers to include coverage for selective infectious diseases, for example, pulmonary tuberculosis.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Teo Ser Luck) (for the Minister for Manpower): Employers of foreign workers, including foreign domestic workers, are required to bear the cost of any medical treatment incurred by their foreign workers (FWs), including pulmonary tuberculosis. If inpatient or day surgery treatment is required, it will be covered under medical insurance that employers are required to buy. The minimum insurance coverage of $15,000 covers 96% of all inpatient and day surgery bills at public hospitals.

However, conditions such as pulmonary tuberculosis are often treated without hospitalisation and thus not covered by the insurance. The intent of insurance is to help employers cope with inpatient and day surgery bills where bill sizes tend to be larger than for outpatient treatment. Mandating insurance coverage to include outpatient bills will raise the cost to all employers. Nevertheless, employers can voluntarily purchase such insurance.

MOM will continue to periodically review and update the healthcare insurance requirements for all foreign workers and foreign domestic workers.

* *Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade): I thank the Minister for the response. In most cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in the initial stages, the symptoms are not very clear so therefore, they are not treated as outpatient yet but they may end up being admitted to ICU or being managed for respiratory failure and pneumonia, for example. So, when in the end the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis is made, her employer finds out that they are not able to claim because it is the diagnosis that has been made as pulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore they end up with a rather big bill and yet they cannot claim from insurance. So, this is actually something, I hope, that the Ministry can review.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: All employers are still responsible to cover for their employees and of course, we encourage all employers to note of such a trend and the cost incurred. But we will review the cases and see how many of these cases are there, and whether it is enlarged, and as such, we will at look at the policies and the coverage itself.