Singapore offers a universal healthcare coverage system through what is known as a mixed financing system. Designed to provide access to various levels of healthcare for everyone, this system is primarily controlled and paid for by the government and is overseen by the Ministry of Health. Public hospitals, which account for 80% of the hospital beds in the country, are cut into different wards which offer different levels of amenities ranging from high end to dorm style wards (Hariharan, 2017).

​

Singapore's insurance system is built around what's known as the "three M's". The three M's are Medisave, Medishield, and Medifund. Medishield and Medisave most often meet the needs of Singapore's people. Medisave is a mandatory savings account for healthcare to which employees contribute eight to ten percent of their monthly earnings. Medishield, a nationwide catastrophic insurance program requires higher deductibles. When the aforementioned healthcare coverage options do not provide enough relief for Singaporeans to be able to receive medical help, the other option is Medifund, which is based on a three billion dollar endowment (Hariharan, 2017).

 

While Singapore is known for the success of its healthcare system, with the implementation of it's current system in 1984 came some challenges. While the quality of care and efficiency of the healthcare system improved, increased demands from patients created challenge in terms of competition for talent and labor, increasing complexity and costs resulting from technological advances, equipment, treatment and training. In addition, there was a need to establish independent standards of care as well as an efficient and reliable method of measuring outcomes (Challenges of Healthcare, 2020).