A revised migrant worker healthcare plans to lower costs for employers, and bring clinics closer by April 2027.
Instead of travelling up to 3km to reach a doctor, they will soon have a clinic within 2km, when the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) enhances the Primary Care Plan (PCP) for migrant workers from April 1, 2027. The plan is meant for migrant workers who live in dormitories or work in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors. It does not cover migrant domestic workers.
Migrant workers pay S$5 per consultation. MOM will also be revising the fixed, annual payment rates employers pay for each worker, lowering it further to range from S$97 to S$113 per worker each year. The current rate is between S$108 and S$138.
This, MOM said, translates to almost all employers paying the same or lower annual capitation rate for their workers.
Chief of the Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) Group at MOM Tung Yui Fai said: “(The enhancements) reflect MOM’s commitment to make sure that migrant workers continue to enjoy accessible and affordable healthcare, while maintaining affordable and sustainable cost for employers.
“We will continue to work with healthcare providers and partners to ensure that the healthcare outcomes (of migrant workers) are delivered well, and that we will continue to have good health seeking behaviour for migrant workers.”
The enhancements were made possible by consolidating the existing six PCP geographical zones to four larger ones, streamlining clinic operations and ensuring service hours coordinated with foreign workers’ healthcare needs and utilisation patterns.
Since its introduction in 2022, the PCP has been providing foreign workers with affordable and accessible primary healthcare. It came about following lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreaks.
At its launch, then Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon said it was not enough to provide care to workers only when they are unwell.
Since March 2021, around one in eight newly arrived migrant workers has been found to have at least one chronic disease, such as diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol.
Based on MOM’s survey of patient reported service, quality and outcome in May 2025, over 96 per cent of migrant workers expressed satisfaction with the services provided by the clinics under the PCP they were assigned to, with 92 per cent reporting that medical care was reachable and convenient.
This time round, MOM appointed four healthcare providers as anchor operators to deliver what they called an enhanced Primary Care Plan in four zones.
They are SATA Commhealth in the northern part of Singapore, St Andrew’s Mission Hospital in the south, Healthway Medical group in the east and Fullerton Health in the west.
SATA will serve 120,000 foreign workers in the north with two medical centres and four clinics; while Healthway will take care of 90,000 foreign workers with a medical centre and eight clinics. Fullerton will see 100,000, also with one medical centre and three clinics.
St Andrew’s Hospital continues to operate under its philanthropy-led partnership and will be taking care of 80,000 foreign workers with one medical centre and two clinics.
Head of St. Andrew’s Migrant Worker Medical Centre Pang Ningyi said taking care of every single foreign worker under its charge “goes beyond the mere cough and cold”.
“We also carry out preventive care and ensure that our standard is equivalent to that of the polyclinics. These migrant workers help build our infrastructure so during their stay with us, we have the obligation to serve them as best as we can,” he said.
Sharing his sentiments, chief executive officer of Healthway Medical group Abram Suhardiman said: “We are glad we were given the opportunity to participate during the (Covid-19) pandemic, swabbing and vaccinating the workers in their dormitories.”
“This time around, we are honoured and encouraged that MOM has given us this responsibility to take care of them. After all, these workers are pivotal to the growth of Singapore.” THE STRAITS TIMES
