An Apple a day keeps the doctor away~

In recent light, the Singapore Medical Association has withdrawn the Guidelines of Fees that governs the prices which doctors charge their patients for consultation and also the price of medicine that is prescribed to the patient. In doing so, they hope not to contravene Section 34(2)(a) of the Competition Act (this is pretty interesting stuff), which basically says that decisions of associations should not objectively prevent, restrict, or distort competition in any way. It is heartening to see the the medical industry proceeding towards a free market model. Much as it would make the industry more competitive and help to keep prices in check, it might also cause the prices to increase due to the built up in pressure all these years caused by the Guidelines of Fees itself.

The question is whether doctors will choose to increase or decrease their prices. Based on projections, the demand for doctors will rise with the increase in population and the change in the demography of our population, with a higher percentage of it becoming "lao jiao". Moreover, the intake of medical students has increased to meet the rising demands for doctors. This means that with greater demand, there is a greater supply to counter any price changes.

But in my humble opinion(who the hell cares abt my opinion), if the doctors in Singapore do not concertedly increase their prices- ie machiam oligopoly got agreement one, the overall market prices will not increase because the average patient would inevitably do a doctor hop, regardless of the quality of service rendered to the patient, or the past medical records that the clinic has of the patient. C'mon guys, we're Singaporeans. If there's a place that has it cheaper, we'll swarm the place. So how much do we value quality? Would one rather pay $40 more to save 1 hour of queue time? Or be assured that the quality of medication and consultation is not compromised? Will future doctors be more profit minded because of this?

In a macro perspective, to be effective and efficient in healthcare across the board, the number of patients should be equally distributed amongst the doctors. For example, if there are 100 people and 5 doctors, each doctor should take 20 patients each, assuming that the ability of the doctors are similar and the illnesses of the 20 patients are the same. In this case, the doctors won't be overworked and the patients will not be shortchanged in consultation hours. In the micro perspective, there are those who are willing to pay more for longer consultation hours, better medicine, higher class facilities and special treatment. People might require different needs and different treatments which will lead them to the specialists.

Ok actually I think I should stop writing because there are too many things to consider here and I can’t seem to come to a conclusion because I feel that I can’t take any stand and I will just keep writing what seems to be nonsense. So thank god I’m studying engineering. And maybe I should eat more apples.

Bleah~