The new strategy aims to have citizens take charge of their own healthcare, where they can enroll with a single doctor who will support them in their health needs throughout their lives. This can be a general practitioner or a polyclinic doctor.
Under the proposed plans, those who choose to enroll in Healthier SG will be able to schedule face-to- face onboarding health consultation, which will be paid for by the Government.
They can develop health plans with their doctors, who will continue to monitor the resident's progress via follow-ups. This will give an overview of their health status, medical needs and health goals, followed by an action plan, such as lifestyle adjustments or weight management.
Healthier SG - which is voluntary - will be open to those aged 60 and above to enroll in the second half of 2023, first announced during the Ministry of Health's MOH Committee of Supply Debate in March.
It will be made available to those between 40 and 59 years old in the next two years.
Singapore's national healthcare expenditure is expected to be around S $22 billion a year, but this is expected to triple to S $60 billion in 2030.
To slow down the increase in healthcare spending, the Government is focusing more on preventive care in hopes of helping citizens become healthier.
According to Mr Ong, about 6 per cent of Singapore's annual healthcare budget is spent on preventive care such as funding the Health Promotion Board HPB.
He said that in the coming few years we will be increasing this - perhaps to double the share of total healthcare expenditure, with Healthier SG.
He said that the set up cost of Healthier SG is estimated to cost more than S $1 billion over the next three to four years. This will be used to fund new IT systems, ground support capabilities, and to give general practitioners GPs one-time support for the necessary IT enhancements to bring them on board.
There will also be recurrent costs, he said.
He said that this is estimated to cost another S $400 million per year, including funding for residents and the annual service fee for GPs.
He said that the primary motivation in making investments is to reduce the suffering of people and their loved ones.
He said if doubles in the next ten years were used instead of triples, we would have saved much more than what we are planning to spend on preventive care.