PAP Seniors Group provides recommendations for Pioneer Generation Package, MediShield Life

SINGAPORE — Help pioneers pay a significant part of MediShield Life premiums, increase the level of benefits under MediShield Life and provide more Medisave top-ups. These are among the six recommendations provided by the People’s Action Party Seniors Group today (Feb 6) to better support the pioneer generation’s healthcare expenses.

After a dialogue last week, the group called on the Government to consider the suggestions under the Pioneer Generation Package and in its formulation of MediShield Life.

The other recommendations include providing assistance in paying specialist outpatient treatments and non-subsidised medicine, increasing Medisave withdrawal limits by age, and covering costs of long-term care.

The group noted that participants in the dialogue session raised concerns about the difficulties seniors faced when paying rising medical bills.

By asking for help with MediShield Life premiums, the group also felt that subsidies should not be one-off.

And as the need for medical care due to chronic illnesses increases, the call was to look into helping with specialist outpatient treatments and expensive non-subsidised medicine. The group added that doing so could also prevent a scenario of seniors admitting themselves into hospitals, which would then worsen the bed crunch situation.

Participants also suggested a tiered system that granted the elderly higher Medisave withdrawal limits over younger Singaporeans. The group recommended that there could more subsidies for home care to encourage ageing in the community or allowing Medisave to pay for home-care services.