Medifund Applications

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Health for the last 10 years (a) how many applicants were successful in their Medifund applications in each of these years; and (b) what was the total Medifund disbursement in each of these years.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Between 2000 and 2009, the Government increased the size of the Medifund capital sum from $720 million to over $1.7 billion. The interest income generated from the capital sum has enabled the total amount of Medifund disbursed to patients to increase from $17.6 million to $64.3 million (Table 1), and for Medifund to be extended in 2001 to cover institutions providing intermediate and long-term care (ILTC).

The number of successful applications is at Table 2. The approval rate of applications between 2000 and 2009 has consistently remained high at over 98%.

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Table 1: Amount of Medifund Disbursed to Patients, by setting, FY2000 to FY2009

Table 2: Number of successful Medifund applications, by setting, FY2000 to FY2009