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Three in four successful in appeal to upgrade Chas card status: Rahayu Mahzam

2023-09-24 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – Three in four of those who appealed to upgrade the status of their Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas) card were successful, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam told Parliament on Tuesday.

She said the Ministry of Health had received around 14,000 appeals for changes in the last two years.

“MOH considers all appeals on a case-by-case basis, to review applicants’ means and circumstances, beyond just applying eligibility criteria of per-capita household income or the annual value of their homes,” Ms Rahayu added.

She was addressing the question of whether the income criteria for the blue and orange Chas cards will be raised in view of the recent inflation, and if subsidies will be reviewed due to recent high medical inflation.

Ms Rahayu said MOH regularly reviews the income criteria and subsidy levels for its healthcare subsidy schemes, revealing that both Chas subsidy levels and Chas income criteria were last reviewed in 2019.

“From early next year, Chas cardholders can benefit from the Healthier SG chronic tier, if they enrol with a Healthier SG GP (general practitioner) clinic,” she said, referring to the enhanced subsidy for those with high chronic medication needs and bills to access certain common drugs at prices comparable to those at polyclinics.

Introduced in 2012, Chas enables Singapore citizens to receive subsidies for medical and dental care at participating GP and dental clinics.

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The scheme aims to encourage Singaporeans to turn to their family physicians first, instead of going straight to hospitals. Conditions covered by Chas include the common cold and cough.

It also subsidises screenings for some conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and colorectal cancer.

The cards come in three colours – green, orange and blue – representing different levels of subsidies cardholders are entitled to.

The scheme also covers treatment for chronic conditions listed under the Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP). These include diabetes, hypertension, stroke, asthma, major depression, schizophrenia, dementia, bipolar disorder, osteoarthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

For those with chronic conditions, Chas complements the CDMP, which allows for MediSave to be used for outpatient treatment covered under Chas. Apart from the Chas subsidies for treatment, patients with chronic conditions can also tap on their MediSave to defray part of the cost of these treatments.