SINGAPORE — A one-time-use healthcare card that costs S$10 but carries a S$30 value was launched on Wednesday (Aug 31), to help low-income families defray the costs of visiting general practitioners (GPs).

It can be used on top of the subsidies provided for under the Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas).

Launched by insurer NTUC Income, only those who are holding the Blue Chas cards can use the Income OrangeAid MediCard.

The Blue Chas cards are for those with a per capita monthly household income of S$1,100 and below. These cardholders can claim a subsidy of up to S$18.50 per visit to the doctor for any common illnesses such as cough and cold.

This means that by forking out S$10 for the MediCard, a Blue Chas cardholder can offset up to S$48.50 of their medical bill at 20 participating GP clinics to date, which are mostly located in the eastern part of Singapore.

The card can be used only once per visit to the doctor and cannot be used at polyclinics.

The GP clinic will also collect the card even when the full S$30-value has not been redeemed.

While anyone can buy the MediCards – with no cap on the number of cards a person can buy – only Blue Chas cardholders can use them.

Valid for two years and will expire in December 2018, the MediCards can be purchased at the FairPrice Shops located at Circuit Road and Eunos Crescent for now.

FairPrice Shops are minimart-sized outlets, located in mature estates, that provide a smaller but more affordable range of goods.

NTUC Income chief executive Ken Ng said the card will help further lower the cost of treatment at participating GPs.

“Such accessibility is particularly significant to those who do not live near a polyclinic. We understand that every dollar counts for these families,” he added.

Asked if there are concerns that the lower-income would overconsume medical services with the MediCards, Mr Ng said the co-pay component of the card was “designed to discourage overconsumption and instill a greater sense of accountability among beneficiaries”.

Yesterday, 400 of these cards were given out free to residents living in the rental flats at Pipit Road and Circuit Road in MacPherson.

Some 150 MediCards will also be donated to eligible Income OrangeAid beneficiaries.

One card recipient, deliveryman Chen Zhi Shi, a father of two children, aged eight and three-and-a-half, said his youngest child may have to see the doctor three to five times a month whenever she falls ill.

Each visit to the GP clinic at Pipit Road will cost him about S$20 after the Chas deductions.

“Our medical bills will be cheaper (due to the MediCard) and it will be less of a financial burden for us,” the 30-year-old said in Mandarin.