PRIVATISATION OF THE HEALTH SECTOR IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Health care expenditures have been escalating for most developed and developing countries. This problem of rising cost and expenditure is a result of the changing demographic trend and th.e advancement in science and technology. The focus of this Academic Exercise is to look at the effectiveness of privatisation as a solution for the rising health care expenditure and cost for Singapore. A look at the National University Hospital is done to try to evaluate the success of the privatisation exercise. However, in Singapore the term privatisation is a misnomer since the privatisation exercise only pertains to financing and the divestment aspect is not likely to take place. This exercise looks at the peculiarities of health care as a commodity and the way different government attempts to solve the problems that these peculiarities cause. The following chapters look at the Singapore case study. The health trend of Singapore was also analysed followed by the look at the solution that the government devised to remedy these problems. A brief examination of the salient features of three other countries' (Japan, UK and US) health system was also looked into. This was done so as to derive lessons for Singapore to learn from. The problems that the US is experiencing in their insurance schemes are important for Singapore, as Singapore is on the way of introducing their own insurance schemes. Which insurance scheme that is adopted, comprehensive or catastrophic should be analysed carefully. This should be done so as not to fall into the same boat as the US. In conclusion, this exercise believe that it is not important and whether the privatisation exercise is "genuine" or not, the important thing is that it must be able to achieve its objectives. In Singapore case, the prospect of restructuring the government, in achieving the aim of reducing the escalating health care cost is good due to the control of the government in these newly restructured government hospitals