Singapore, Nov 22, 2008 - Singapore Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan assuaged concerns about health costs during this recession.

Stressing that healthcare costs would not be a problem during this recession, he said most Singaporeans have enough savings in their Medisave accounts while and hospitals would be more generous with Medifund applications.

He was speaking at the NHC Time Capsule event today.

Total reserves for healthcare come up to S$42 billion, which is14 times the annual health spending. Medisave has S$40 billion and this amount is growing at S$2 billion a year with employee contributions.