With MediFund, no Singaporean would be denied access to appropriate, subsidised care due to an inability to pay.
MediFund was introduced by the government on 1 April 1993. It’s objective is to be a safety net for needy Singaporeans who are unable to afford their remaining medical bills after Government subsidies, MediSave and MediShield Life and other assistances such as CHAS and Pioneer and Merdeka Generation Packages.
MediFund helps to pay for the remaining medical bills and assistance is based on application.
For Financial Year 2023, there were approximately 1.1 million successful applications and a total of $156 million was disbursed.
Of the amount disbursed, $118 million were to assist patients in public healthcare institutions and $37.9 million were disbursed to assist patients in intermediate and long-term care facilities.
On average, the amount of MediFund assistance provided was $929 per inpatient admission, and $97 per outpatient visit.
Over the years, MediFund has been enhanced to ensure that needy Singaporeans continue to receive appropriate and adequate help.
For example, MediFund Silver and MediFund Junior were introduced in 2007 and 2013 respectively to provide more targeted assistance for the elderly and children from needy families.
MediFund has also been extended to cover more healthcare services over the years.
In FY23, MediFund and MediFund Silver provided full assistance for 85.8% of all MediFund-assisted workload, similar to the 85.9% reported in FY22.
