In the past eight years Singapore has consistently increased the share of health in the national budget by and average of 1.2% from 2013 onwards. In Parliament, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong assured the House that primary healthcare will be strengthened in Singapore as the share of national health expenditure has been increased from 40 per cent in 2013 to 46 per cent in 2018. He did not however reveal the current healthcare budget.
Even if the figure is at 50 per cent, Singapore’s share of national health expenditure is significantly below the OECD’s average.According to the OECD website, on average, more than 70% of health spending is funded out of public resources among OECD countries – from government revenues and social insurance contributions.
According to the World Bank the world’s average health expenditure stands at 59.5% and Singapore has not reached even that target yet.
Read the entire article originally published in The Online Citizen here.
Image credits: World Bank
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