The scheme gives elderly, low-income Singaporeans access to subsidised care at private general practitioner (GP) and dental clinics.
On Wednesday, Minister of State for Health Amy Khor made routine house visits to residents in her constituency.
During her visit, Dr Khor gave out pamphlets to raise public awareness on the Primary Care Partnership Scheme.
Since August, about 2,000 people have signed up for the subsidised healthcare programme every month.
This is double the application rate for January to July.
It brings the total number of residents on the scheme to 37,500, up from 31,000 previously.
Dr Khor said she expects applications to go up further, once changes to the scheme come into effect.
In August, the scheme was expanded so that more people would qualify.
The income ceiling was doubled to S$1,500 for each member of the household, while the minimum age was lowered from 65 to 40. The changes kick in on 15 January.
There have been some calls to do away with the age limit, most recently by Member of Parliament Lam Pin Min, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health.
But Dr Khor said the ministry will assess the scheme and public response before making further changes.
It is also working to increase the number of participating GP and dental clinics.
The number of participating clinics has gone up by about 10 per cent since August.
Previously, participating clinics made up only 20 per cent of the total pool of GP and dental clinics..
There are currently 440 GP clinics and 210 dental clinics on the scheme, up about 10 per cent from the previous 409 GP clinics and 190 dental clinics.
"We are working to see how we can provide them with some technical help. We are in talks with various firms to see whether we can have a computer system to alleviate this issue about being put off by the paperwork," Dr Khor said.
In addition, authorities are looking at ways for GPs to get access to cheaper drugs, so that further savings can be passed on to patients.
- CNA/wk
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