Sphygmomanometer

This additional condition in the work permit application process requires them to buy a policy that will provide coverage of at least $5,000 a year if the worker or maid is hospitalised or needs day surgery.

Certain conditions have to be met before work permits, including those for maids, and S-Passes for skilled workers, are issued.

Employers who are issued permits or passes and are later found not to have bought policies, can be jailed up to six months and fined up to $5,000.

The new rule will apply to all new foreign workers and maids entering Singapore, sphygmomanometer as well as those already here.

It does not affect employment pass holders, as they are usually professionals and executives, for whom their companies usually already provide medical insurance.

Currently, about 110,000 foreigners work here on employment passes or S-Passes, while 645,000 hold work permits.

The new rule will protect foreign workers from being unable to afford treatment. It is especially needed now as medical fees will be increasing significantly for them.

From January, subsidies in public hospitals and polyclinics will be withdrawn for all foreigners, and partially cut for permanent residents.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that foreign workers are hospitalised most often for dengue fever, appendicitis and stomach flu, and for nine in 10, hospital bills do not exceed $5,000.

So the coverage has been set at this 'basic level', said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in a statement yesterday.

To ensure that suitable policies are available, the MOM worked with insurers NTUC Income, Great Eastern and Overseas Assurance Corporation (OAC).

Income and Great Eastern offer plans for foreign workers at premiums of $62.05 to $133.75 a year. Income and OAC cover maids over a 26-month period for $110 or $120.

Employers may choose other insurers' plans that meet the minimum conditions.

For more information, call 6438-5122 or visit MOM's website at www.mom.gov.sg

Maid agency owner Winnie Wang does not foresee problems implementing the new rule. More than 90 per cent of her clients have already bought adequate medical insurance for their maids.

However, retiree B.T. Liaw, 66, who employs an Indonesian maid, said: 'Medical insurance is important, but it would be better if the employer can pay a flat fee, like a levy, rather than buy a policy for each maid.'

If the maid's employment has to be terminated early, say, if she is caught stealing, the employer would have paid for the insurance, and will still need to pay again for the new maid, he pointed out.

Renovation contractor Tan Chim Hoon, 53, who employs 10 foreign workers aged under 40, feels that medical insurance is unnecessary.

'In more than 10 years in the business, I've never had a worker hospitalised, because they are young and healthy,' he said.

Mr Jolovan Wham, 28, executive director of Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, a welfare group for foreign workers, said that every month or so, a foreign worker whose employer has refused to pay his medical bill approaches the group for help.

Of the new rule, he said: 'This is a very good thing and has been long overdue.'