HEALTHCARE GETTING BETTER BUT EXPENSIVE

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, July 21 (Bernama) -- How to achieve better quality, improved
access and at the same time, lower costs in health care?

This is the poser that centres on the East Asia Healthcare Policy Dialogue
which opened here Wednesday, on the eve of the Asean Health Ministers Meeting
Thursday.

Opening the dialogue here, Singapore Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the
healthcare industry had not been able to provide better and cheaper healthcare
at the same time to the public, till now.

He said although medical science had reduced mortality and extended
lifespan, nevertheless, cost had gone up tremendously, causing even some rich
countries not being able to provide good healthcare universally.

Khaw said healthcare players probably faced contradiction in trying to
attain both better yet cheaper healthcare for the public.

The minister said, what was happening in the industry was that "better but
more expensive" healthcare solutions were put in the market, instead.

"And often, the industry ends up touting just "more expensive" solutions
even though there is skimpy evidence of them being better," he added.

But Khaw was confident that the healthcare industry one day could
consistently provide good quality, cheaper healthcare and made it more widely
available.

Looking at ICT as an example, the minister said there was no contradiction
in the sector where information technology, broadband and mobile telephony had
indeed, been getting more powerful, ubiquitous and yet cheaper, at the same
time.
-- BERNAMA


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