SINGAPORE will soon fund its healthcare system through a capitation model, in which each healthcare cluster receives a predetermined fee for every resident living in the region that they service.

This is as Singapore embarks on a major healthcare reform focusing on preventive care, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament on Wednesday (Mar 9), during his ministry's Committee of Supply debate.

The absolute budgets of each healthcare cluster will not be affected under the new financing model, and will in fact increase slightly, said Ong. "What will change is the basis of calculating the budgets."

Right now, Singapore funds its healthcare clusters largely by workload, such as the number of treatments and operations performed.

But as the government moves towards emphasising preventive care to alleviate healthcare costs, the healthcare system's support structures - including financing - must also change accordingly.

This is to support the new Healthier SG strategy, which focuses more on primary and community care, and less on surgeons and specialists in hospitals.

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"Appropriate surgeries, procedures and treatments will always be provided when required," Ong reassured the House. "But with this shift in the basis of funding, there will be a natural incentive for hospitals to try to keep residents healthy through preventive care."

The new funding model will take into account healthcare outcomes, with key performance indicators such as quality of care; uptake of healthy lifestyles and habits; prevalence of chronic illness; and cost effectiveness of treatments, among others.

The capitation funding model will begin in April this year, with its scope progressively broadened as various aspects of the clusters' operations are ready, said the Ministry of Health.

Healthcare spending is "quite different" from spending in areas such as education, which is forward-looking and future oriented, said Ong: "If we are being honest with ourselves, we know it is not the same as education. It is driven by deteriorating health that can be prevented. It is often about paying for the unwise lifestyle choices of our past."

But there is indeed one forward-looking component in healthcare spending, and that is preventive care, he added.

To further strengthen Singapore's public healthcare infrastructure, a new polyclinic will open in Taman Jurong by 2028, said Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary in a separate speech.

"The existing Queenstown Polyclinic will also be redeveloped by the end of the decade," he added. These are part of the ministry's plans to expand Singapore's network of polyclinics to 32 by 2030.