According to a statement released last Monday, hospitals in Singapore will no longer provide free healthcare to unvaccinated patients suffering from Covid-19. Some will consider this approach harsh, others just. For its part, the country justifies its announcement by referring to the extreme pressure that unvaccinated patients put on the health system.
Over the past fifteen weeks, the growth of new Covid-19 cases in Singapore has stabilized, as has the number of intensive care patients, although the latter remains high. According to local authorities, advances in vaccinations and booster shots have contributed enormously to tempering the violence of the pandemic. However, they believe that those who are unvaccinated continue to disproportionately represent the bulk of serious cases admitted to intensive care, putting a strain on the healthcare system.
In response to this situation, Singapore is now taking a hard-line approach to anti-vaccines. According to a statement released on Monday, hospitals across the country will no longer provide free health care to patients affected by the disease who voluntarily refuse the vaccine. In essence, authorities believe that people refractory to the Covid-19 vaccine should be willing to pay for treatment.
Remember that in normal times, Singapore has a privatized health system. The latter is then "subsidized" by the government according to the diseases. In the context of the pandemic, the authorities have exceptionally covered all health care related to Covid-19 free of charge. From now on, only vaccinated people will be able to benefit from it.
Note that this announcement is only for those eligible for vaccination. Non-vaccinated children under the age of twelve, as well as medically exempt people, will indeed still be covered.
Not everyone agrees with this decision, as IFLScience reports. When some denounce a refusal of fairness, others support this decision, underlining the extreme impact of unvaccinated patients on the hospital world.
This is not the first time that the hospitals impose restrictions against anti-vaxxers through the authorities. In recent months in the United States, several medical establishments have been directing organ donations in particular to patients who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, relegating the non-vaccinated to the bottom of the transplant waiting lists.
To explain this decision, hospitals refer to the problem of immunosuppressive drugs that every organ recipient is forced to take to avoid rejection. Indeed, the latter promote the risk of Covid-19 infections and increase the risk of mortality by 20 to 30%. Doctors therefore feel that they cannot afford to "waste" organs.
