LiveHow can S’pore better care for its people? Budget debate continues ahead of PM Wong’s round-up speech

Nurturing a Singapore spirit resilient to global fragmentation: Gabriel Lam

An important determinant of Singapore’s future is a unified national spirit strong enough to withstand fragmentation, says Mr Gabriel Lam (Sembawang GRC).

Citing the levels of global conflict and geopolitical instability in 2025, Mr Lam argues that social cohesion is not a “soft” measure but a strategic necessity.

“Singapore cannot afford social fracture,” he says, outlining three foundations, including support for families and workers, in his speech.

He highlights Project Sound Box in his Canberra ward as an example of operationalising unity - by using technology to reduce lion dance noise by 40 decibels and organising "learning journeys" for residents of all races.

Mr Lam further says that unity must be measurable, participation meaningful, and contribution normalised. He proposes incorporating multi-year impact metrics into the new SG Partnerships Fund, integrating corporate volunteering into ESG reporting, and establishing permanent civic participation pathways for young people.

Beyond social bonds, Mr Lam says that economic confidence requires “predictable stability”, and calls for a consolidated Family Assurance Framework to map support across housing, healthcare, and retirement in a transparent way.

He also urges the Government to streamline inter-agency support into a single digital interface and to peg income thresholds for schemes to median income growth so that support evolves automatically with living standards.

“When families feel predictable stability, they make long-term decisions with confidence,” he says. “And that confidence strengthens economic resilience.”

High rent hikes being confined to some streets in Kampong Gelam is not a sufficient assurance that heritage businesses can stay viable, says WP’s Fadli Fawzi

Statistics released by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Syed Harun Alhabsyi are “not sufficient as an assurance” that Kampong Gelam will remain viable for heritage businesses, says WP MP Fadli Fawzi (Aljunied GRC).

Dr Syed Harun said earlier in February that a small proportion of rents in high-footfall areas hiked more than 25 per cent over the past two years.

High rents in specific streets like Haji and Bali lanes can easily spillover into adjacent streets that house traditional businesses like textile retailers, Mr Fadli says.

The disappearance of heritage businesses in Kampong Gelam “will be an irreversible thinning” of the precincts’ meaning, he says.

“We should also not understate the intimate connections between our sense of self, our sense of belonging, and our sensing of the physical infrastructure – to a large degree, our identity is anchored in places,” he says, relating his own childhood memories of his late father bringing him around the area.

He says, with Kampong Gelam, Singapore still has the opportunity to “balance the forces of commerce and the imperatives of culture”, and suggests introducing heritage business licenses to protect traditional businesses and prevent the “over-commercialisation” of the historic district.

Mr Fadli also says Singapore needs to “democratise” its approach to releasing archives and recommends an automatic declassification and release of public records after 25 years, citing the recent declassification of the Albatross File containing never-before-seen documents about Singapore’s separation from Malaysia. 

ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

More help needed for couples experiencing infertility: Hany Soh  

Even as the Budget recognises families are the society’s bedrock with measures to support parenthood, there are those who desperately want children but face difficulties, says Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC).

Ms Soh, who heads the PAP Women's Wing Seasons of Life advocacy group, which focuses on supporting women through various life stages, notes that prospective parents face unique concerns and challenges.

“There is no silver bullet to improve our ever-low total fertility rate overnight; the decision to marry and have children is deeply personal,” she says.

But more can be done to help couples who have difficulties conceiving, she adds, citing a SingHealth study that indicates one in six couples experience infertility in Singapore.

She suggests promoting early health screenings for fertility in collaboration with the Registry of Marriages as part of the Healthier SG movement.

She also proposes various subsidies, noting that financial costs are the top stressor for such couples.

For instance, raising assisted reproduction treatment subsidies and medicine utilisation limits for assisted reproduction technology (ART), as well as co-funding ART at private clinics, expanding MediSave withdrawals from three to six cycles and allowing MediSave coverage for elective egg freezing.

Choo Pei Ling calls for balance between healthcare affordability and sustainability

Healthcare policy must be judged not only by how much is spent, but also by whether families feel secure and the system can endure, says Dr Choo Pei Ling (Chua Chu Kang GRC).

Speaking in both English and Mandarin, she says many Singaporeans’ first concern at a clinic remains immediate out-of-pocket cost, a “real and reasonable question” that reflects anxieties about affordability and ageing.

But she urges policymakers and the public to also confront another question: If individuals bear none of the cost of care, who will ultimately shoulder it?

“Healthcare costs do not disappear; they must be borne by someone,” says Dr Choo, an assistant professor in imaging neuroscience at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

The challenge of balancing affordability with sustainability is among the most difficult in healthcare policy, she adds.

Drawing on conversations with residents in Tengah, Dr Choo says many elderly Singaporeans fear not illness itself but becoming a burden to their families.

That sentiment underscores the importance of financial protection schemes and long-term care support, she says, expressing support for the Government’s continued efforts in MediSave, subsidies and eldercare financing.

She stresses that the strongest healthcare systems focus not only on treating disease after it occurs, but also on prevention, early recovery and avoiding unnecessary hospital stays.

Healthcare, she concludes, is a responsibility shared by society as a whole, requiring individuals, families and the state to each play a role.

“Affordability, access and quality do not happen by accident. They are the result of careful choices, shared responsibility and long-term stewardship,” she says.

ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG 

Require firms to reimagine junior roles to avoid a ‘broken bottom rung of the ladder’ from AI adoption, says Andre Low

Citing research published late last year from the US, WP Non-Constituency MP Andre Low says hiring for entry-level jobs in sectors exposed to artificial intelligence has fallen by as much as a fifth.

While there is no such granular data for Singapore, Mr Low says this problem is what he calls “the broken bottom rung of the ladder”.

A first job is not just income, but a place where one discovers their capabilities, and learns from seniors a standard or craft or judgment that one carries for the rest of a career, he says.

“It is where professional identity is formed – if that rung is gone, not because graduates are less capable, but simply because it is now cheaper to automate the tasks that used to justify hiring them, we do not have an unemployment problem.

“We have a rupture in how knowledge and expertise pass from one generation to the next.”

Mid-career workers will also face the parallel challenge – skills that took years to build are being absorbed by AI faster than retraining programmes can respond.

In response to this problem, he asks the Government to publish granular data for new graduates broken down by sector, role, type and level of AI exposure.

He also asks that the authorities require firms claiming tax deductions for AI expenditure demonstrate a credible plan for maintaining entry-level roles.

He says they should do this not by preserving roles that AI has genuinely made redundant, but by investing in reimagining what junior work looks like in an AI-augmented firm.

“This is a Budget with genuine ambition, and the WP supports much of its direction, but ambition must come with accountability. The strategic advantage of AI must be felt in the wages of our workers, not just in the earnings reports of the companies deploying the technology.”
 

‘Relentless pace of digitalisation’ is leaving some seniors bewildered and disempowered, says WP’s Sylvia Lim

The use of Singpass – Singapore’s digital identification service – has been a great enabler, but it has, for some seniors, been “bewildering and disempowering”, says WP chair Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC), who begins her speech by identifying herself as freshly 60.

Seniors who had never had a smartphone had to buy one to download the Singpass app, but many cannot use it as “it is simply alien to what they are used to”, says Ms Lim.

Seniors with close relatives or friends can get help for digital transactions, but this still engenders a feeling of dependency and helplessness, she adds.

Then there are seniors without children or close relatives. “The prospect of isolated seniors is real,” she says.

She asks if there is information available on the extent to which services may not be reaching seniors due to the demands of digitalisation, and how Singapore can best support them.

“I'm aware that the Silver Generation Office is doing health-related outreach to isolated seniors at their homes. How far are they trained and able to assist such seniors in digital transactions?”

She also makes a related point on various in-person services facing a “rapid withdrawal”.

“One huge change is in banking, with banks driving their customers to digital banking apps and the reduction in physical bank branches for government services,” she says.

She raises the issue of a lack of a replacement for the Housing Board office that closed in Hougang due to its site being sold.

“The lack of a replacement physical branch has upset and worried residents. This is not surprising, according to the Department of Statistics, as at June last year, the Hougang planning area is one of those which has a high concentration of residents over the age of 65,” she adds. 

PHOTO: MDDI

Pioneer Generation and CHAS subsidies already available to National Dental Centre patients, says Rahayu Mahzam to WP MP Dennis Tan

Minister of State for Health Rahayu Mahzam refers to Mr Dennis Tan’s speech from Tuesday, which called for Pioneer Generation and CHAS subsidies to be made available at the National Dental Centre when patients are referred there with complicated conditions.

These are subsidies they would have been eligible for at the polyclinic, he said.

In his speech, Mr Tan (Hougang) also repeated his fellow WP MP Kenneth Tiong’s November parliamentary question about extending subsidies for complex denture cases that had to be referred to a tertiary institution. Mr Tiong had also cited a ST Forum letter writer who said his 83-year-old mother’s teeth extractions had to be done at National Dental Centre’s satellite clinic at Changi General Hospital due to fear of complications, but she was denied Pioneer Generation or CHAS subsidies for the procedure.

Ms Rahayu says such subsidies are already available to patients at the National Dental Centre.

For the case raised by the forum letter writer, she says subsidies were not provided as she was a private patient. Her ministry will reach out to explain the situation.

Mr Tiong follows up with a question on the extent of MediSave coverage for dental subsidies, and if they can be expanded.

Ms Rahayu says her ministry has recently announced higher subsidies for root canal treatments and permanent crowns.

“So there are some extensions already looked at, but as with many other measures, we are constantly reviewing it to see how best you can support patients.”

Diana Pang voices concerns over immediate implementation of PARF revisions

Ms Diana Pang (Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC) asks about the changes made to the Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF).

The PARF rebate has been reduced by 45 percentage points, and the rebate cap lowered from $60,000 to $30,000. This applies to cars registered with COEs obtained from the bidding exercise, which closed on Feb 20.

The Budget 2026 announcement was on Feb 12.

Ms Pang says while she acknowledges that policy can change, she has concerns over the start date of the revisions, as well as the absence of transition safeguards for buyers who have already committed to buying a car under the previous framework.

She highlights that when the rebate framework is changed quickly, the assumptions that buyers and sellers make at the point of contract no longer stand, but the buyer remains locked in as they cannot back out without incurring a penalty.

Ms Pang then asks if the revised PARF framework could have started in a later COE cycle, or with a longer lead time to allow new car owners time to react and consider their decision to buy.

She also questions if assessments were made to consider existing industry practices – such as non-refundable deposits – in deciding the immediate start date, as well as how the Government assesses the policy on household cost pressures.

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Question time ends and Budget debate resumes

We kick off the third day of the debate with Ms Diana Pang (Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC), the first of a string of newcomer MPs speaking in the Budget debate for the first time.

More than 80 per cent of families in childminding pilot used CDA funds, says Goh Pei Ming

Over 80 per cent of families enrolled in the Early Childhood Development Agency’s Childminding Pilot for Infants have used their infant’s Child Development Account (CDA) money to defray out-of-pocket expenses of childminding services, Minister of State for Social and Family Development Goh Pei Ming says.

Apart from CDA funds, subsidies are provided to ensure childminding services under the pilot are affordable, says Mr Goh (Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC), in response to WP’s Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik (Sengkang GRC), who asked if parents are eligible for other forms of financial assistance beyond CDA.

For parents who use these services full-time – five days a week for four weeks – they pay around $700 a month in out-of-pocket expenses, Mr Goh says.

He notes that this amount is lower than the typical cost of childminding services, which come up to around $1,200 to $2,800 a month.

In a follow-up question, Mr Abdul Muhaimin asks what proportion of those enrolled in the programme come from families with a per-capita-household-income of $1,500 or below, and whether the absence of means-tested subsidies has been a barrier to families’ participation.

Mr Goh says in response that the childminding pilot is available only at two centres at present, with no more than 100 infants at this point.

The ministry is exploring how to “do this well” and to scale it across the country, including how to make it more inclusive for children across all income groups, he adds.

He says low-income families who enroll their children in government-supported preschools will be entitled to more subsidies  With the fee caps at these preschools and the subsidies, some families pay as low as $40 for full-day infant care in such preschools, he adds.

ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO