Singapore will subsidize more patients in long-term residential care services to be conducted from January next year, Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Wednesday.

It will revise its grants to nursing homes, chronic sick units and psychiatric rehabilitation homes, for which 6,000 patients are expected to benefit from it.

Currently, there are 35 nursing homes, 4 chronic sick units and3 psychiatric homes, caring for some 6,000 subsidized patients.

MOH currently provides these providers with an operating subvention, based on the family income of the patients, grouped into 4 tiers. It will be expanded into nine tiers.

Subsidies start at 75 percent for families with a monthly income of less than 1,440 Singapore dollars to 10 percent for those with an income of 5,600 Singapore dollars. Those earning more than 5,600 Singapore dollars will not get any benefit.

Most of them have benefited from the enhanced framework, saving them hundreds of dollars each, in many cases.

With this enhancement, one in three subsidized patients in nursing homes will get more subsidies, saving them substantially hundreds of dollars in bill size. The enhanced subsidy framework in the provision of long-term residential care services will raise.

The health ministry's annual subvention to these providers by an additional 6 million Singapore dollars (US$4.19 million), to about 61 million Singapore dollars (US$42.65 million) per year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2009)