ST July 26, 2009 100,000 lack MediShield

ST July 26, 2009
100,000 lack MediShield
NTUC aims to get them covered; urges husbands to pay their wives' premiums
By Mavis Toh

Women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

ABOUT 100,000 women in Singapore do not have MediShield insurance coverage and risk having to shoulder hefty medical bills.

They are mainly housewives with no Medisave savings.

Describing this as a significant number, National Trades Union Congress deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob said on Saturday that these women and their families would face a big burden.

Women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. Men on average live up to 77 years and suffer eight years of disability.

'But even as we live longer and need more health care, we have lesser means to pay for them,' she said at a forum organised by NTUC Women's Development Secretariat to raise health awareness among non-working women.

She noted that such women are not covered either due to 'pure ignorance' or when their coverage lapses over time. NTUC intends to reach out to this group and has appointed 90 women 'MediShield ambassadors' to encourage women to sign up.

Pamphlets, posters and a video promoting MediShield through cartoons and simple narration were also launched at the NTUC Centre to help Singaporeans understand the scheme better.
Madam Halimah and guest- of-honour Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan both urged husbands to pay the MediShield premiums of their non-working wives.

MediShield, operated by the Central Provident Fund Board, is a low-cost catastrophic illness insurance scheme. It is designed to help with large hospitalisation bills for the treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisation at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.
It has a maximum coverage age of 85. Medisave can be used to pay the premiums.

Older women now depend heavily on their family to pay for the cost of their acute care. Only 6 per cent of them use their own Medisave while 65 per cent depend on their children's.