MEDISAVE FUNDS (Use for health screening)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Goh Chong Chia asked the Minister for Health if he will allow Central Provident Fund members above the age of 40 to use their Medisave funds, annually or bi-annually, for certain types of health screening such as pap smear, breast cancer, heart, blood and diabetes check-ups and, if so, whether this entitlement can be extended to the non-working spouse of the Medisave member.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (for the Minister for Health): Sir, to answer Mr Goh's question, firstly, we have got to remember what the Medisave scheme is about. The Medisave scheme is primarily designed to help individuals meet their personal or immediate family's hospitalisation expenses, especially during old age.

The Ministry has, in fact, over the years received many requests to allow Medisave to be used for medical screening and has consistently decided against it. As the Member has pointed out in the Question, there are many types of health screening, and many of these are really not cost-effective. For certain health screenings that are cost-effective, such as mammography and pap smear, my Ministry does make them affordable by providing heavy subsidies at the polyclinics, in fact, 50% subsidy. Also, we have introduced the Community Health Screening Programme for the elderly to detect diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure. The cost for this screening is very minimal as the elderly pays only $5 for the screening which ordinarily would have cost $20. Therefore, Singaporeans need not rely on Medisave to pay for cost-effective health screening. In any case, if we allow Medisave to be used too liberally, it would result in higher rates of contribution into the Medisave account.

On extending Medisave to non-working spouse, Singaporeans can actually top up their immediate family members' Medisave if they do not have enough Medisave savings to pay for their medical bills. This is in line with our objective of promoting family support and resource pooling.