Means testing put on hold

• 2May06: "Means testing itself is not wrong, but how to do it properly is tricky and needs time. Originally, I was more ambitious when I returned to (the Health Ministry) three years ago. I thought we could do means testing."
• Nov2006: "Mr Khaw dropped hints of retiring as he recalled how entering politics was never his wish"
• 7April07: Means testing may kick in within next 12 months
  
  Oh... KBW has become ambitious again? Why the flip flop? ... oh, right, Kharma comes in waves...
  
  Means testing put on hold
  By : Tor Ching Li, TODAY
  Date : 02 May 2006 0657 hrs (SST)
  URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/206005/1/.html
  SINGAPORE: Means testing - which would see public healthcare patients being charged according to what they can afford - will not be implemented within the next two years as originally planned, said Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Monday morning.
  "Means testing itself is not wrong, but how to do it properly is tricky and needs time. Originally, I was more ambitious when I returned to (the Health Ministry) three years ago. I thought we could do means testing.
  "But after discussion with people, I think let us do other proposals first," Mr Khaw told reporters during a Sembawang walkabout.
  Instead, Mr Khaw said he would focus on revamping the MediShield national health insurance system and on improving healthcare for the chronically-ill.
  He was responding to Workers' Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim's questions on how means testing for healthcare would be carried out.
  She had raised the issue during a WP rally at Hougang on Sunday night, stating that present indicators such as house size and household income may not be accurate or appropriate benchmarks for how much a person could afford to pay.
  "If we make the same amount of money, it does not mean we have the same amount of money to spend," said Ms Lim.
  Mr Khaw stressed that nobody can fault the principle of means testing. This included WP chief Low Thia Khiang who, according to Mr Khaw, had raised in Parliament the idea of means testing for Government polyclinic patients because Mr Low felt that rich patients were "overcrowding" the heavily-subsidised polyclinics.
  However, whether means testing will eventually be carried out will depend on whether it is practical to do so.
  Said Mr Khaw: "I will do it only if it is practical, because the theory may be sound but if the implementation is more costly ... then it's not worth the effort.
  "So whether to do it or not, I don't know. It depends on whether we can come up with practical ideas."
  As for how long it would take to work this out, Mr Khaw replied: "I don't know. You know my attitude to work, I am single-minded about things and I focus my energy on a particular issue. Right now, my big issue - besides Sembawang - is the chronically-sick. I think they can get better healthcare than they are receiving now."
  When asked for his response to WP candidate Perry Tong's proposal for the Government to scrap the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on drugs - as well as to charge at cost medication for chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes - Mr Khaw said the answer to rising healthcare costs was not so simple.
  "If it was so simple that just one or two simple ideas from Perry Tong and the whole healthcare issue disappears, we would not have healthcare problems around the world being such a major political issue, not just here," said Mr Khaw.
  He accused the WP of trying to score political points by proposing populist healthcare solutions that have proved disastrous in Britain, Europe and elsewhere. In Britain, he said, patients wait for months for even simple procedures.
  And ideas such as reducing GST for medical bills, which is already being done for subsidised patients, would benefit the rich more than the poor. Private hospital bills are many times the size of Class C hospital bills.
  "Instead, our solution is to provide Class C with the greatest subsidy (at 80 per cent of cost)," he said. - TODAY /dt
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