The Community Health Assist Scheme has left us out!

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The Government has recently announced big changes to the Community Health Assist Scheme to allow more low and middle-income households to qualify for the scheme (“More families to get health subsidies”; last Friday).

However, there is another group of people who are still left out. These are the elderly retirees who live with their adult working children. They are not able to apply for the scheme because of the household income criterion.

My husband and I are in our 60s and retired. We live with our working daughter and we are both on lifelong medication for a chronic medical condition.

We cannot ask our daughter to pay for our lifelong medical expenses as she has her own living expenses to maintain. Unless our daughter moves out of our house, my husband and I can never qualify for the scheme.

I do not think this is a good solution to the situation as this would mean we, the elderly, would be left alone in the house. The criterion should be based on the individual’s income, rather than the family income.

I hope the Government will consider changing this criterion so that this group of elderly retirees can benefit from the scheme. After all, these seniors belong to the “pioneer generation” mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Margaret Leong (Ms)
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