Good morning Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, and members of parliament. I am Mr Gan Kim Yong from the Ministry of Health. I am writing this proposal with the intention informing you why our ministry's budget should not be cut. The health of our citizens is of utmost importance and as such this matter should not be taken lightly. Firstly, our budget should not be decreased because the money should be spent on more subsidies and schemes for the people that need it. Medisave, introduced in April 1984, is a national medical savings scheme which helps individuals put aside part of their income into their Medisave Accounts to meet their future personal or immediate family's hospitalization, day surgery and certain outpatient expenses. Currently, people are only able to withdraw from their Medisave only a few times each year leaving lots of money being unused in their accounts. This forces many older people to rely on their children's Medisave every year. If the budget is decreased, there is no way we can improve on this situation. Many people will have less of their medical payments subsidised and will eventually lead to monetary problems. For example, hospital patients admitted on or after 1 May 2007 are charged S$450 per day. Payments of maximum S$50 are included for the doctor's daily attendance fees. If the budget is decreased, the subsidies would be reduced and would make healthcare more unaffordable. Therefore, a reason why our ministry’s budget should not be reduced is due to lesser support for the citizens of the nation. Next on the bucket list of reasons of why our ministry’s budget should not be decreased is due to the future developments of hospitals. Plans for the building of The Sengkang General and Community Hospital, and Woodlands General Hospital have been announced by the government. The hospitals will open its doors in 2018 and 2020 respectively. By shrinking the budget of the ministry, how can the ministry cover su