1,000 to be trained to handle pioneer package questions

SINGAPORE — In the next few months, nearly 1,000 frontline workers at public healthcare institutions and polyclinics will be equipped to handle questions and concerns about the Pioneer Generation Package, as efforts to raise awareness of the S$9 billion package gain momentum.

The taskforce for outreach and communications identified this new avenue for publicising the package yesterday, as they revealed survey findings on whether and how much those eligible, and the general public, know about the deal.

Noting that healthcare institutions are key touchpoints and also where pioneers will tangibly experience components of the Pioneer Generation Package, Senior Minister of State (Finance) Josephine Teo said: “When you are in need of these subsidies, when you are in need of these benefits, at that particular moment you want it to be explained to you and you need to be given correct information.”

Not only will these frontline workers know about its various subsidies, they will be proactively identifying and affirming the Pioneer Generation status of eligible patients at the registration and billing stages of the visit, said Senior Minister of State (Health) Amy Khor, who is co-leading the taskforce with Mrs Teo.

The package includes annual Medisave top-ups of S$200 to S$800 for life, as well as subsidies for MediShield Life premiums and treatment at specialist outpatient clinics, Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) clinics and polyclinics. About 450,000 seniors born before 1950 and who became citizens before 1987 are eligible.

Meanwhile, a telephone survey of 1,511 Singaporeans by the Ministry of Communications and Information last month showed that seven in 10 had heard of the package — a level Mrs Teo said was “quite high”. Awareness was higher among seniors, with more than eight in 10 (202 out of 244 respondents aged 65 and above) having heard of it.

Knowledge of the package, however, was lower. Only half of those aware of the package know who are eligible and four in 10 were unable to specify any benefit under the package.

About half who were aware of it said they felt more assured that healthcare costs for pioneers and their families would now be significantly more affordable, with the remainder either neutral or less assured.

Communication efforts will have to be sustained for a fairly long time, and the message will have to be simple and bite-sized, said Mrs Teo.

In a break from the practice to not air dialect content on free-to-air television, a Hokkien video on the package began airing on Channel 8 last Friday, and will continue until next month during the 10.30am to 12.30pm timebelt.

Letters confirming Pioneer Generation membership, to be sent by June, will come in four languages. For those with poor eyesight or who cannot read, other members of the household or grassroots organisations and seniors activity centres will be asked to help.

Other steps include linking public healthcare IT systems with the database of pioneers, as well as connecting general practitioners and dentists on CHAS — which will extend to all pioneers from September — so that they can readily identify the pioneers using their identity or Pioneer Generation cards. Pioneers with moderate to severe functional disabilities already on schemes such as ElderShield will be informed of automatic inclusion for the Disability Assistance Scheme. Work will also be done with care providers to get nursing-home and home-care patients who qualify onto the scheme, said Dr Khor.

Meanwhile, the panel to assess appeals to be included in the Pioneer Generation Package has been set up and a “small number” of appeals has been received, said Mrs Teo.

Those with Pioneer Generation Package queries may email contactus [at] pioneers.gov.sg, call 1800 2222 888 (Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 5.30pm), or write to the Central Provident Fund Board at CPF Building, 79 Robinson Road, Singapore 068897.