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Medical Savings Accounts in Singapore : How much is adequate?

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  • Ngee-Choon Chia

    (SCAPE)

  • Albert K C Tsui

Abstract

While many studies have examined the cost-containment aspect of Medical savings accounts (MSA), few have investigated the adequacy of MSA to finance the health care expenditure. This paper estimates the present value of lifetime healthcare expenses (PVHE) of the Singaporean male and female elderly upon retirement at age 62. The estimation involves calibrating the stream of future healthcare expenditure; stochastic forecasting of cohort survival probabilities; and discounting the projected lifetime healthcare expenditure. Estimated values of the PVHE under various scenarios are used to assess the adequacy of the government-decreed minimum saving to be maintained in the MSA.

Suggested Citation

  • Ngee-Choon Chia & Albert K C Tsui, 2005. "Medical Savings Accounts in Singapore : How much is adequate?," Finance Working Papers 22567, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:eab:financ:22567
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    5. W. von Eiff & T. Massoro & Y. O. Voo & R. Ziegenbein, 2002. "Medical savings accounts: a core feature of Singapore's health care system," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 3(3), pages 188-195, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Hui & Yuen, Peter P., 2016. "Medical Savings Account balance and outpatient utilization: Evidence from Guangzhou, China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Wouters, Olivier J. & Cylus, Jonathan & Yang, Wei & Thomson, Sarah & McKee, Martin, 2016. "Medical savings accounts: assessing their impact on efficiency, equity, and financial protection in health care," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65448, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Terence C. Cheng & Jing Li & Rhema Vaithianathan, 2019. "Monthly spending dynamics of the elderly following a health shock: Evidence from Singapore," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 23-43, January.
    4. Ngee-Choon Chia & Albert K C Tsui, 2005. "Reverse Mortgages as Retirement Financing Instrument : An Option for “Asset-rich and Cash-poor†Singaporeans," Finance Working Papers 22566, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    5. Ngee-Choon Chia & Albert K C Tsui, 2009. "Monetizing Housing Equity to Generate Retirement Incomes," Microeconomics Working Papers 22759, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    6. Jessica Leight & Nicholas Wilson, 2020. "Framing Flexible Spending Accounts: A Large‐Scale Field Experiment on Communicating the Return on Medical Savings Accounts," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 195-208, February.
    7. Ngee-Choon Chia & Albert K C Tsui, 2005. "Reverse Mortgages as Retirement Financing Instrument: An Option for “Asset-rich and Cash-poor” Singaporeans," SCAPE Policy Research Working Paper Series 0503, National University of Singapore, Department of Economics, SCAPE.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    present value of lifetime health care expense; cohort survival probabilities;

    JEL classification:

    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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