2024年3月6日，新加坡衛生部高級政務次長拉哈尤·瑪贊回複議員有關禁菸和殘疾人補貼議題。
以下內容為新加坡眼根據國會英文資料翻譯整理：
主席：嚴燕松先生。
阿裕尼集選區議員 嚴燕松先生：謝謝主席。我的問題是提給高級國會秘書拉哈尤的。
我很高興聽到政府沒有排除禁菸的可能性。我想問一下，政府是否正在積極推進這個計劃，以及預期的時間表是什麼？為了我們下一代的健康，我希望我們能更快地推進這個計劃，不要等其他國家先行。
其次，關於殘疾人（PwDs）的醫療補貼，我注意到高級政務次長說醫療補貼不是根據特定人群，而是根據收入階梯分級的。
首先，高級政務次長是否同意，這種情況並不適用於「建國一代」（Pioneer Generation）和「立國一代」（Merdeka Generation），他們不論收入如何都能獲得額外的補貼？所以，這個政策是否也可以應用到殘疾人身上？第二，醫療的經濟狀況評估是否總能考慮到殘疾人日常生活中產生的許多其他費用，這些費用會降低他們支付醫療費用的能力，無論其家庭收入如何？
拉哈尤瑪贊女士：謝謝這位議員的問題。
首先，關於菸草禁令的問題，我想再澄清一下，正如我在講話中提到的，並不是說我們現在什麼都沒做，或者在反對菸草方面沒有改進或努力。從結果和成果來看，我們的表現比其他地方要好。我們在決定採取哪些措施和方法時，必須全面考慮問題。
我們採取多管齊下的方法。我們考慮了稅收、標準化包裝、提高法定最低年齡；這些措施在很大程度上顯示了很好的效果。另一方面，在評估菸草禁令時，我們也在關注其他地方的結果，這可能並不一定會產生我們想要的效果。
所以，我認為我們需要一些時間來評估是否有其他措施能夠改變這種情況。在這方面，我們還有一些更緊迫的問題需要處理，比如電子菸。因此，我們確實需要集中精力處理這些緊迫的問題。
關於你提到的對殘疾人的支持，我非常理解你的觀點。事實上，這也是我與其他部門討論過的問題，關於對殘疾人的支持。我們確實需要根據具體情況來考慮。目前，我們在提供支持時，已經在逐步增強。
我可以說，作為一個普遍原則，如果有家庭有特定的問題需要幫助，我們有分層支持系統，他們肯定可以得到所需的幫助。話雖如此，我認為這是我們將繼續關注和改進的領域，在適當的情況下，我們會繼續加強援助。
以下是英文質詢內容：
The Chairman: Mr Gerald Giam.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Thank you, Sir. My clarifications are for Senior Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu.
I am glad to hear that the Government does not rule out a generational smoking ban. Can I ask whether the Government is actively moving forward on this plan and what is the timeline it is looking at? For the sake of the health of our future generations, I hope that we can move faster and be an early mover on this and not wait for other countries.
Secondly, on healthcare subsidies for PwDs, I note the Senior Parliamentary Secretary said that healthcare subsidies are not based on specific categories of people, but are tiered according to income.
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But first, does the Senior Parliamentary Secretary agree that this is not the case for the Pioneer and Merdeka Generation who get additional subsidies regardless of their income status? So, can this be applied as well to PwDs? And second, does healthcare means-testing always take into account the many other expenses that PwDs incur for their daily living, which will lower their ability to pay for healthcare regardless of their family income?
Ms Rahayu Mahzam: I thank the Member for the questions.
Firstly, on the issue of the tobacco cohort ban, I would just like to clarify again, as I have mentioned in my speech, that it is not as though nothing is being done at this juncture or there are no improvements or efforts with regard to our efforts against tobacco. As you can see from the results and the outcomes, we are doing quite well as compared to other places. In deciding what are some of the measures and approaches that we take, we really have to look at things in totality.
We take a multi-pronged approach. We looked at taxes, we looked at standardised packaging, we increased the minimum legal age; and this has actually to a large extent, shown very good results. On the other hand, as we are assessing the tobacco cohort ban, we are looking at the outcomes in other places and it may not necessarily generate the same outcome that we want.
So, I think it will take some time for us to assess whether there are other measures that are going to change this. And on that front, there are some more salient points or more imperative issues that we need to deal with, with regard to vaping for example. So, we do need to focus our energies in dealing with some of those emergent issues.
Your second question related to the support for the PwDs, I appreciate the point and I can understand. In fact, this is something I also raised with other Ministries, in terms of support for PwDs. We do really have to look at appropriate circumstances. At the moment, a lot of the support that we have given, we have looked at enhancing as it goes along.
And I can say, as a general principle, if there are specific issues of families who need help, we have our tiered-support system where they can definitely get the help they need. Having said that, I think this is something that we will continue to look at and see, where appropriate, we can continue to enhance.
新加坡國會丨來源
新加坡國會丨圖源
