Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story

The Singapore Healthcare System: An Overview

The Singapore Healthcare System  CHAPTER 1 The Singapore Healthcare System: An Overview  Singapore has achieved extraordinary results both in the high quality of its healthcare system and in controlling the cost of care. In per capita terms and as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), its healthcare expenditures are the lowest of all the high-income countries in the world. How did this happen? How has Singapore been able to achieve these kinds of results? The answers are bigger than just the process of putting a healthcare system together. There are larger factors that have to do with the spirit and philosophy of Singapore itself, the way it is governed, how the government approaches domestic issues, and how it deals with the world. In my study of Singapore, I have found three compelling qualities woven into the fabric of the country that have enabled it to achieve outstanding successes in so many areas, healthcare included. They are longterm political unity, the ability to recognize and establish national priorities, and the consistent desire for collective well-being and social harmony of the country. Political Unity and Constancy of Purpose From the time the British withdrew from Singapore and left its former colony to fend for itself, Singapore has been able to develop and grow as an integrated whole. The People’s Action Party (PAP) has been in power since independence, resulting in sustained political stability. Along with stability has come a unity and constancy of purpose and action throughout Affordable Excellence combined t1 1 3/21/2013 7:12:50 PM  Affordable Excellence government. Contrast this condition with other countries where government regularly changes hands and different parties espousing different agendas go in and out of power. A clear and uninterrupted approach to solving a nation’s problems is very difficult to achieve in such situations. The government has been steady in its broad general vision of what care should be and what role it should play in the lives of Singaporeans.That continuity of philosophy and approach, I believe, has made possible the ability to plan and execute over a long period of time. I have also observed an unusual degree of unity among the country’s various ministries—an acknowledged spirit of cooperation among governmental departments that makes possible the formulation of policies that reaches across ministries. A member of the team that assembled the 1983 health plan discussed in this chapter and Health Minister from 2004 to 2011, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, has noted that each month, Permanent Secretaries of each ministry meet to focus on issues that require participation by more than one ministry.1 It is simply assumed that ministers will work as a team on issues that need interdepartmental cooperation. I find it relevant that the government realized early on that improvement in health conditions and care had to be approached as an integral and inseparable part of the overall development planning for the country. As a heavily urbanized city-state with a population of two million at independence, caring for the health of the people meant more than just building hospitals and clinics. Health would be affected by almost every aspect of life in an urban setting: housing, water supply, food supply, air quality, waste disposal, road traffic, parks, tree planting, and more. Ensuring the health of the people of Singapore had to be built into every aspect of urban planning, requiring a comprehensive approach and the cooperation of numerous ministries over all the various sectors of government. The culture of cooperation made it all possible. Some have suggested that Singapore is a thinly-disguised dictatorship, and that political stability is attained at the cost of democratic freedom.That is simply not the case. Although one party, the PAP, has been in power since independence, it is elected and does not hold power through force, and could not have maintained its rule without being highly responsive to the concerns of the electorate. The government is responsive to the concerns of the electorate. In the 2011 elections, healthcare was one of the issues raised. There were concerns that the government was not doing enough for the elderly and that families were experiencing severe financial strain and even bankruptcy as they tried to Affordable Excellence combined t2 2 3/21/2013 7:12:50 PM The Singapore Healthcare System  pay for older family members’ care. Opposition parties organized themselves around issues of healthcare...