FROM next month, those suffering from asthma and a lung condition known as chronic obstructive pulmonary obstruction (COPD) can dip into their Medisave to pay for their treatment.

About 180,000 people - 120,000 asthmatics, and 60,000 COPD patients - are expected to benefit from this extension.

The two diseases join an existing list of four other chronic conditions - diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and stroke - for which the compulsory medical savings can be tapped.

The scheme started with just diabetes in October 2006.

The same rules over usage will apply: Patients can draw on up to $300 a year from each Medisave Account, and up to 10 accounts belonging to them and their immediate family members.

But for each payment, they have to pay in cash the first $30, and 15 per cent of the balance, as well as an administration fee of $3.14.

More than 700 - or half - of all general practitioner clinics here have signed up to allow their patients this option of payment.

HEALTH SCREENING ALERTS FOR THOSE ABOVE 40

THE Health Promotion Board (HPB) is rolling out a community screening programme targeted at those above 40. Under the Integrated Screening Programme, letters will be sent to those in this age group reminding them to go for screening for major chronic diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Under another programme, nurses will hold classes at community centres for patients and their family members on how to take care of their conditions.

HPB is also developing the Elderly Health Promotion Blueprint, to guide the elderly here on how to keep healthy and, if they have chronic conditions, on how to keep them under control.

Next month, the Health Ministry will set up the Agency for Integrated Care to ensure that patients who need rehabilitative care are transferred to the appropriate community hospitals and nursing homes after being discharged from hospitals.

The new agency will receive $20 million over four years to equip public hospitals with 50 care coordinators, who will identify high-risk patients - aged above 70 and with complex medical problems - and design individualised care plans for them.

HUSBANDS URGED TO TOP UP WIVES' MEDISAVE

HEALTH Minister Khaw Boon Wan hopes husbands will top up their homemaker wives' Medisave accounts and buy MediShield for them.

In the face of rising health-care costs, he urged husbands to do their part to beef up their stay-at-home spouses' medical savings and insurance.

He said: 'Let us not forget the housewives too. Husbands should help contribute to their Medisave accounts... This must be one of the basic duties of husbands.'

He revealed that as part of its drive to get up to 90 per cent of Singaporeans covered under the national medical insurance plan MediShield, the Health Ministry was working with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to get workers to buy MediShield for their spouses.

'This is the second basic duty of husbands,' he quipped.

By contributing to Medisave, buying MediShield and for the middle- and high-income earners, adding a rider from private insurers, Singaporeans can keep their health-care bills small, Mr Khaw said.

The Government, on its part, will continue giving out subsidies - more than $1.7 billion this year - and reform MediShield to cover a larger proportion of big hospital bills for B2- and C-class patients.

It will also top up Medifund and Eldercare Fund by a total of $600 million this year, to help the needy pay for treatment in hospitals and rehabilitative facilities such as nursing homes.

RENAME POPULAR C-CLASS? NO NEED TO

C-CLASS ward by any name would still be as popular.

That was Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's reply to Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah GRC), who proposed changing the name of the ward class because the letter 'C' sounds like 'si', the word for 'dead' in Hokkien.

Mr Ang related a tale of how a superstitious resident refrained from calling the ward by its name, and shushed him when he did so.

He suggested the ward be renamed the economy class or e-class ward when means testing is introduced in January next year.

An amused Mr Khaw confessed that it was the first time he had ever received such feedback about the C-class ward, which has been so named for the past four decades.

He said: 'We are not using it for means testing, to scare people away from it. If anything, the class C wards are overcrowded.'