Why Singaporean Healthcare Works
6th January 2025
In Singapore the patient is the customer. More than that, the patient is the customer waving real cash money at the people thinking about treating them. As people like cash money, the patient gets treated in a manner that leads to the money flowing to the people doing the treatments.
Yes, it’s that foul idea of treatment not being free at the point of consumption. Except that foul idea does lead to what is seemingly desired — a joined up health care system that treats people efficiently.
In one sense the system’s not all that different to Britain’s. Nearly all of the hospitals are government owned and run. You pay a tax – akin to national insurance – for access to medical care. But the big difference is that your taxes go into your healthcare account to be spent by you. Anything you don’t spend over a lifetime gets added to your pension — an incentive to spend enough on health care to live long enough to spend the pension. As your tax pays your healthcare you are, when entering a temple of healing, a cash waving customer and therefore gain the same attention as a maitre d’ gives in an expensive restaurant. OK, perhaps less fawning than known big tippers but still.