Ho Ching, spouse of Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has publicly endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.
Gan is currently leading the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) team seeking a mandate from Punggol GRC voters in the upcoming 3 May election.
On 28 April 2025, Ho Ching, who is also the former Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings, praised Gan through a Facebook post for his compassion and determination in supporting Singaporeans with rare diseases.
Gan’s efforts in healthcare highlighted
In her post, Ho Ching described Gan as someone who “cares deeply” and who worked “tenaciously and quietly” to find sustainable healthcare solutions.
She specifically highlighted his role in establishing support mechanisms for patients suffering from rare diseases during his tenure as Minister for Health.
Ho wrote that it was difficult for the Ministry of Health to justify unlimited financial support for rare diseases due to the high costs and the need to prioritise healthcare resources for the broader population.
Despite these constraints, Gan sought ways to address the gap.
He engaged with the community and philanthropists to create a viable funding model, ultimately justifying government support through a 3:1 matching scheme.
Establishment of the Rare Disease Fund
As a result of these efforts, the Rare Disease Fund (RDF) was launched in July 2019 by the Ministry of Health and the SingHealth Fund.
This fund was initially created to cover four rare diseases and later expanded to include a fifth, more expensive condition after a major new donor came forward.
Ho Ching explained that the RDF was specifically designed for conditions where treatment could enable patients to lead normal lives with normal life expectancies, albeit with the lifelong burden of expensive medication.
She noted that Gan’s persistence led to an initial S$25 million in funding, which eventually scaled up to S$100 million through the government’s 3:1 matching initiative.
According to Ho, Gan’s approach exemplified leadership without seeking personal credit.
She expressed deep respect for him, writing, “This is a good man that I respect a lot because he cares enough to try this way and that to find solutions that can make lives better.”
RDF supported 9 patients between 2019-2023
According to RDF’s website, a rare disease is defined as one which affects fewer than one in 2,000 patients.
The fund provides additional financial assistance to patients who still require help after benefitting from existing government measures.
In a response to Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Louis Chua in March 2023, the Ministry of Health confirmed that since its establishment, the RDF has supported nine patients.
This figure represents approximately 0.4% of Singaporeans suffering from rare diseases.
Despite the establishment of the RDF, there have been criticisms regarding the sustainability and fairness of relying on philanthropy to support patients with rare conditions.
On 8 November 2022, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, in a written parliamentary reply to questions posed by then-WP MP Leon Perera, stated that Singapore’s healthcare financing system is not structured to bear the full costs of high-cost treatments for rare illnesses.
SDP’s Paul Tambyah: Not appropriate to fund treatment of rare diseases through crowd-funding or charity funds
Furthermore, in 2022, Paul Ananth Tambyah, Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), criticised the RDF model, arguing that it is inappropriate for a country like Singapore to depend on crowd-funding or charitable donations to support critical healthcare needs.
Tambyah stressed that healthcare is a basic human right and that no child should have to endure suffering or cause financial ruin to their families because of the cost of treatment.
The SDP has proposed alternative approaches to funding high-cost treatments for rare diseases.
One of their major proposals is to aggressively negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers, citing Japan’s success in reducing healthcare costs through such negotiations.
If negotiations fail, the SDP advocates for the use of compulsory licensing to allow the production of generic versions of life-saving drugs, similar to practices in Thailand, India, and Brazil.
Tambyah also criticised the “listing approach” of the RDF, suggesting it is limited and cannot sustainably meet the needs of all rare disease patients over their lifetimes.
The SDP has called for the establishment of a universal insurance policy with reinsurance to ensure collective risk-pooling for rare, high-cost medical conditions, providing a more sustainable and equitable solution.
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