ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Singapore's social security programs and assesses the extent to which they address the needs of the society's weaker sections. It shows that they are directed not at expanding statutory social security but privatizing it by promoting the role of the family, community, and market. The chapter argues that while promoting the private sector has some advantages, it is also seriously limited with respect to adequacy, equity, and even efficiency in certain cases. It explores the direction in which the Singapore government is moving unlikely to lead to sufficient social protection for the weaker sections of the society. Singapore has a generous children's allowance program directed at mothers who are young and educated, and also wealthy. Singapore's health system is, for the most part, a privately financed fee-for-service system in which patient payments account for more than two-thirds of expenditures.
