Singapore Policies

A) Education Policies

1. Compulsory, free primary education starting at the age of 7 [Compulsory Education Act 2003]

2. Meritocracy is a fundamental ideology in Singapore and a fundamental principle in the education system which aims to identify and groom bright young students for positions of leadership. The system places a great emphasis on academic performance in grading students and granting their admission to special programmes and universities

3. Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) to provide financial assistance for education to low income families with gross household income of SGD$2,500 or a per capita income of less than SGD$625.

4. Edusave Merit Bursary (EMB) is given out to about 40,000 students, who are from lower-middle and low-income families and have good academic performance in their schools.

B) Healthcare Policies

1. Medisave: Introduced in April 1984, is a national medical savings scheme which helps individuals put aside part of their income into their Medisave Accounts to meet their future personal or immediate family's hospitalization, day surgery and certain outpatient expenses.Under the scheme, every employee contributes 8% - 10.5% (depending on age group) of his monthly salary to a personal Medisave account. The savings can be withdrawn to pay the hospital bills of the account holder and his immediate family members.

2. MediShield: A low cost basic medical insurance scheme. Introduced in 1990, the government designed MediShield to help members meet large Class B2/C hospitalisation bills, which could not be sufficiently covered by their Medisave balances. To avoid problems associated with first-dollar, comprehensive insurance leading to unnecessary over-consumption of healthcare services, MediShield operates with co-payment features such as co-insuranceand deductiblewhere patients share part of the responsibility for his medical expenses. The co-insurance and deductible can be paid using Medisave or cash.3. Medifund: An endowment fund set up by the Government to help needy Singaporeans who are unable to pay for their medical expenses. Medifund acts as a safety net for those who cannot afford the subsidised bill charges, despite Medisave and MediShield coverage. Set up in April 1993 with an initial capital of S$200 million, the Government will inject capital into the fund when budget surpluses are available.

4. ElderShield: An affordable severe disability insurance scheme which provides basic financial protection to those who need long-term care, especially during old age. It provides a monthly cash payout to help pay the out-of-pocket expenses for the care of a severely-disabled person.

5. Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS): A scheme by the Ministry of Health (MOH) that enables Singapore Citizens from lower- and middle- income households to receive subsidies for medical and dental care at participating General Practitioner (GP) and dental clinics near their homes.Singapore Citizens who qualify for CHAS will receive an individual blue or orange Health Assist card. Health Assist cardholders will also enjoy subsidised referrals to Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOCs) located at Public Hospitals or National Dental Centre when required.

C) Housing Policies

1. The Home Ownership for the People Scheme In 1964, the government introduced the Home Ownership for the People Scheme to give citizens a tangible asset in the country, a means of financial security and a hedge against inflation. This push for home ownership also helped in the overall economic, social and political stability of the country.

2. Use of CPF for Public Housing In 1968, the government allowed the use of Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings to pay the downpayment and service the monthly mortgage loan instalments. This helped more become home owners.

3. Home Protection Scheme In 1981, the Home Protection Scheme, administered by the CPF Board, was implemented to ensure that dependants of HDB flat owners would not lose their homes because of a default in loan repayments, in the event of death or permanent incapacity of the sole breadwinner.

3. Cost-Effective Designs Early HDB flat types were designed to be simple and utilitarian, to optimise space usage and to keep costs low. The ease of construction was another important factor as homes were needed to be completed quickly to re-house the population still living in unhygienic squatter settlements.

4. Estate Renewal Besides building better quality flats in new housing estates, old HDB estates are being renewed through the Estate Renewal Strategy. This comprehensive and coordinated approach covers the Main and Interim Upgrading Programmes, the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS), the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) and other aspects of improvement for older estates such as modernising the town centres, adding or upgrading community facilities and improving the road and transportation network.

D) Market Dominance

1. The Competition Act 2004 (`the Act) was passed by Parliament on 19 October 2004. It is largely modeled on the UK Competition Act 1998. The objective of the Act is to promote the efficient functioning of Singapores markets and hence enhance the competitiveness of the economy.

E) Negative Externalities

1. Smokingi) Benefits: Pleasureii) Costs: Harmful to bystandersiii) Strategies: Laws to deter smoking in public areas, raising taxes for cigarettes, ban on contraband tobacco products.

2. Traffic congestioni) Costs: Increases transportation time, inconvenience road usersii) Strategies: VQS to control quantity of vehicles on the road, COE and ERP to raise the costs of usage of automobiles.

3. Gamblingi) Benefits: Increase in taxable income by governement, source of revenue for the countryii) Costs: Social problems (eg. Family problems due to compulsive gambling)iii) Strategies: Entry fee of S$100.00 to deter gamblers, Singapore pools as sole legal gambling entity, involuntary opting out to bar problematic gamblers from visiting casinos.