Is the disease cured? The Ideal and Reality of Singapore’s Healthcare System

What is the optimal medical system? This is a question that will interest politicians, scholars and even the public. Singapore's medical system ranks excellent internationally, ranking sixth in the World Health Organization's "Ranking of Health Systems" (2000), and ranked sixth in Bloomberg's "Medical Efficiency Index". (Health-Efficiency Index)" was rated as the country or region with the highest medical efficiency in the world (2020), and the "Global Health Index (Global Health Index)" was rated as the healthiest country in Asia (2017). It naturally became Research focus.

In "Is there a cure for the disease?" In the book "Ideals and Realities of Singapore's Medical System", Singaporean scholar Jeremy Lim analyzes various aspects of Singapore's medical system from a local perspective, elaborating on its financing model, regulatory structure, service types, talent management, doctor-patient relationship and even medical tourism. details and gains and losses. This is the best introductory book for learning about the operation and effectiveness of Singapore's healthcare system.

How to share the pressure of medical expenses has always been a controversial political issue. Because of this, Lin Fangyuan believes that it is difficult to thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of Singapore’s medical system without analyzing it from the perspective of political philosophy. This system assumes that public resources are limited, so medical expenses are also an important responsibility of individuals. Singapore's medical financing model is built on this concept, and the debate between "justice" and "efficiency" arises.

Some scholars point out that the construction of a medical system depends on the political and historical context of a place, making the question of what is the most ideal medical system even more complicated. The rich and the poor may not have the same interests, but they cannot deny that whether "diseases are cured" or not is closely related to their lives.