SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT PRECISION HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS IN SINGAPORE, 1 OCTOBER 2026

1.       Singaporeans are living longer. Our life expectancy is among the highest in the world. This is worth celebrating. Indeed, longevity is an important measure of a healthcare system’s success.

2.       But as people live longer and non-communicable diseases and multiple chronic conditions become more common, lifespan tells only part of the healthcare story. Increasingly, the more important question is: are those additional years good years?

3.       Healthcare authorities and researchers are therefore increasingly paying more attention to the healthspan-lifespan gap – the difference between how long we live and how long we live in good health. Globally, this gap is now around a decade. In other words, while people are living longer, they are spending roughly their final decade in ill health.

4.       A recent study published in Communications Medicine offers useful insights. It examined the healthspan-lifespan gap across 183 countries and found that the gap is associated with how long people live, a country’s Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, and its burden of chronic, non-communicable disease.

5.       The researchers used these factors to estimate the gap that each country might be expected to have. Singapore did better than the model predicted, with a narrower gap than expected. In fact, we were the second best-performing country in the study.

6.       We must have done some things right, although the study itself cannot tell us exactly what they were. One possible reason is that we detect chronic diseases relatively early and help patients manage them well, preventing or delaying complications. Another possible reason is our broad system of social prescribing, which encourages active lifestyles and stronger social connections in every community, helping to stave off disease complications.