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Singapore Smart Nation and your health insurance

Technology is something that almost everyone has to come to terms with these days. Where your grandmother may have once struggled with anything computer-related, now she likely finds it a breeze to keep in touch with friends and family via Facebook, search for recipes online, or play games via apps on her phone. For younger generations, technology is simply a part of life that cannot be avoided. Gone are the days of snail mail and paper forms, as technology becomes more available, more compact, and more user friendly all the time. Some countries have been slow to adopt technology as well as their populations have, but Singapore has set out to be on the cutting edge of all things technological, and their Smart Nation initiative is aiming to enable people in the nation-state to draw ever closer to a Utopian society through the development and use of new technologies. What is Singapore Smart Nation all about, though? And how can it allow those in Singapore to live healthier lives?

Smart Nation Singapore

There are two parts to the Singapore Smart Nation approach. The first is the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and the other is the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA). GovTech facilitates technological cooperation between Singapore governmental agencies and local people and business. IMDA focuses on developing Singapore’s economy in the information communication and media sectors, as well as bolstering personal data protection. This organization also works to strike a balance between consumer protectionism and pro-business policy with regards to its regulation of the nation’s media and telecommunications industries.

Individual health insurance blog

These organizations are combining to address four main initiatives that have been outlined within the Singapore Smart Nation framework. These are health, living mobility and services. There are already multiple programs being put into place for each initiative:

Health – This is the initiative that is most likely to be of interest to Pacific Prime Singapore members. Although the quickest adopters of technology tend to be young people, Singapore’s situation with regards to its aging population will certainly need to be addressed by the Singapore Smart Nation program. For this reason, robotics and technology for the assistance of the elderly is a focus of the health initiative. Tele-health is another focus that can be used by people of all ages. This constitutes remote consultations with your doctor (saving both parties much time and effort), information sharing between medical care providers, and conferencing between doctors.

The health initiative also features Singapore’s HealthHub Portal as a great source of online services and health information. With it, people will be able to access their medical records online and view test results more quickly. Finally, Singapore’s National Steps Challenge is providing people with wearable fitness trackers in order to encourage more active lifestyles.

Living – The living initiative looks to help people get the most out of their surrounding environment, both inside and out. By encouraging and providing the technology for smart homes, the initiative would allow builders to make better decisions about their projects based on computer modeling, as well as make for more efficient, safe and comfortable living inside of individual homes. Outside of the home, people will be more aware of environmental hazards like pollution, illness and other hazards. Furthermore, the OneService app, which has already been launched, allows for efficient reporting of environmental issues to the government.

Mobility – Getting around in a growing city with limited space like Singapore can really be a headache for motorists and riders alike. That’s why Singapore is looking at the new transportation-improving solutions that are being developed around the world to enhance the way people move about the city-state. Perhaps the most exciting among these is self-driving vehicles, which is an area in which Singapore wants to be a pioneer in research, standards creation, and proliferation of self-driving vehicles themselves. Additionally, Singapore wants to make it a cinch for people to both obtain and pay for transportation with solutions like contactless payments and app-based on-demand transport. Of course, maximizing the effectiveness of transportation infrastructure in any area will require top-tier data analysis, which is another part of the mobility initiative.

Services – Projects under the heading of services generally seem to be focused on making people’s lives easier and more efficient in some manner. This includes making paying for goods and services easier through contactless payment solutions, enabling citizens to interact with the government more easily through apps that allow access to public services, and enabling the local financial sector with an innovative ‘regulatory sandbox’ and the establishment of a Smart Financial Centre.

How Singapore Smart Nation may affect your health and insurance

There is no specific mention of health insurance in Singapore Smart Nation’s initiatives, but that doesn’t mean that the insurance industry at large, as well as individuals’ health insurance plans, won’t be affected by the program in some way.

The wearable tech featured in the health initiative is already being utilized by many insurers to give discounts to those clients that can show that they are making an effort to live healthier lives. The government-subsidized and legitimized use of this tech can only help more people to take advantage of health insurance plans with these kinds of features. Likewise, tele-health, while not considered by many insurers at this time, will likely become something that will be covered by the insurance plans of the future as use of it becomes more common.

Besides these kinds of specific points, the overall increased efficiency of Singapore’s governmental, medical, transportation and environmental infrastructure is likely to lead to better health outcomes for the city-state’s population, and extend lifespans even further. More efficient healthcare delivery would likely lead to lower healthcare costs, and thereby lower health insurance premiums, but longer lifespans may lead to more elderly people who would likely put more of a burden on the healthcare system in the long term, which may actually raise costs and, thereby, premiums. How it balances out in the end is still up in the air, but it should be plain to see that, despite the costs, a higher quality of life is in the best interest of all Singaporeans.

If you have any additional questions on anything above, or how your individual insurance may be affected by Singapore Smart Nation, feel free to contact Pacific Prime Singapore’s knowledgeable sales advisers. They are standing by to provide you with information, as well as health insurance plan comparisons and free price quotations. Contact us today!

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Senior Content Creator at Pacific Prime Singapore
Suphanida is a Senior Content Creator at Pacific Prime, an award-winning global health insurance and employee benefits specialist.

With over 5 years of experience in the field, Suphanida spends the majority of her day synthesizing complex pieces of insurance-related information and translating this into easy-to-understand, engaging, and effective content across a variety of media such as articles, infographics, whitepapers, videos, and more.

Suphanida is also responsible for planning and publishing three whitepapers released annually by Pacific Prime: The State of Health Insurance Report, The Cost of Health Insurance Report, and The Global Employee Benefits Trends Report. Additionally, she handles the LinkedIn profiles of Pacific Prime’s Founder and CEO, as well as Global HR Lead.

Suphanida’s strengths lie in her strong research and analytical skills, which she has gained from her BA in Politics from the University of Warwick and Erasmus Mundus Joint MA in Journalism from Aarhus University and City, University of London.

Being of Thai-Indian origin and having lived, studied, and worked in Thailand, the UK, and Denmark, Suphanida also has a unique, multicultural perspective that helps her understand the struggles of expats and globetrotters.

Outside of work, she enjoys traveling to new places and immersing herself in different cultures.
Suphanida Thakral