1/21/2015

Medishield Life – A laudable effort but…


I would like to applaud the govt and the committee tasked with the job to come out with a reasonable, practical and affordable national medical insurance scheme. I still have many misgivings but this is a good start to protect the people from the robbers holding them at ransom, demanding money or their lives. There are just too many frightening and frivolous stories of ‘sick’ people being cheated and fleeced by medical professionals for their ‘medical’ conditions. The Medishield Life Insurance scheme would give the people some peace of mind and comfort in an otherwise uncontrollable medical industry with runaway fees that it will end up like choosing between staying alive and be bankrupt or die.
 

The available details on the premiums payable and the coverage look reasonable and fair without being extravagant on either side but still need some fine tuning. Below are a few points that I hope the govt would address or be accused of using the Medishield as an excuse for money grabbing and raiding the CPF.
 

1. There must be a cut off age for payment of premium. The govt cannot expect people to keep on paying premiums if they live to 100 years or 200 years. A reasonable cut off age like 80 should be applied and those above this age should still be covered without having to continue paying the premiums. Not everyone is a minister or chairman of GLCs and can collect millions to 80 or 90 years old. Many would have retired or lost their jobs by 55 or 60. How are they going to pay the premiums when they have no income and every cent in their savings is needed to tie over their daily living expenses?
 

2. There would not be many living after 80 and not many would need expensive medical treatments. The state must take over the responsibility of looking after the very senior citizens. The state can afford to. Senior citizens are not going to go for expensive heart by pass or organ transplant. Or certain exclusion clauses can be added to exclude such treatments but still provide the basic medical needs for free.
 

3. Excess premiums collected should be ploughed back to the scheme to lower the premiums payable.
 

4. It is necessary to have laws to ensure those who can pay to pay. But the govt must know that a medical insurance is unlike a vehicle insurance. The latter is needed as the driver can hurt and kill. The only person that can be hurt by not paying medical premium is the payer himself. Why criminalise the non payment of premiums across the board? Many of the jobless seniors would become criminals as many would not be able to pay without an income. This part needs to be carefully reviewed to avoid turning the seniors into criminals. Heard of compassion and honouring the grandpas and grandmas?
 

5. There is also a need to control medical fees charged by govt hospitals or the Medishield will become like a dog chasing its tail. The medical profession must not have a free hand to write their own pay cheques, particularly in govt hospitals. If there is no cap on this, a rogue govt can manipulate rising fees to raise premiums as and when they want.
 

6. As a compulsory universal insurance scheme, the premiums must be much lower than a normal premium or the existing medishield premium. It must be with the whole population paying for it. And it must be able to modify the coverage for those 80 and above and not needing them to pay for their entire life. This is simply unacceptable. It is crippling to the finances of the oldies and is as good as robbing the grandpas and grandmas. How can anyone conceive of such an action without feeling mean and evil? Where is your conscience?
 

I would just raise these few points and let the MPs that are supposed to be looking after the interest of the people to do the necessary. They cannot be seen as against the people. This is not a party issue and they must speak freely, speak their minds for the people, for once. The voters must watch every MP/Minister closely to see if they are for the people or against the people and giving lip service to serving the people. Watch those who vote for making the oldies pay and pay until they die.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...


long ago have this proposal.....

allow people to graduate from
medishield life to medishield
free.....

people will contribute to
medishieid life up to only 65
years old......

from 66 onwards, they will be
graduated into medishield free,
a premium free scheme......

this is simple and straight
forward......

don't need to keep on advertising
causing much confusions among
senior citizens.....

worth considering.......

worth considering.......

cheers....

Anonymous said...

A national compulsory scheme has a lot of cost savings. No need to market, no need sales team, no need advertisement.

They must pass the cost down to the insured.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

The Singapore Medishield/ Medisave programs ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD when it comes to sustainable public health policy.

It is so good, that cuntrees like Aust. Canada and even the USA are considering implementing the ideas and policies of Singapore's public health system.

You dumb motherfuckers are looking at a gift horse in the mouth. You don't realise how LUCKY you are.

This one I give two thumbs up to the PAP/ Singapore government. Give credit where credit is due lah.

patriot said...

Before they repair the health and medical problems of the People, they saddle the Latter with financial difficulties that cause heartaches and emotional upsets.

patriot

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ Doubting Thomas1147:

>> How can it be the best in the world?

Oh, but it is...and testing will prove it to be so. Of course there might be adjustments here and there. It's an ongoing experiment lah. Lighten the fuck up!, and gather more data before you open your mother chow cheebye mouth again lah, you entitlement-minded loser!

Singapore health care: affordable Excellence.

Anonymous said...

Loser hiding behind vulgarity. Base.

Anonymous said...

bipolar

Anonymous said...

I would just raise these few points and let the MPs that are supposed to be looking after the interest of the people to do the necessary.
RB

But even if those PAP MPs do not do the necessary to look after the interest of the people, 60% may still be very scared to accidentally vote PAP out because WP is not ready to be govt.

Anonymous said...

Tourrette!

b said...

They should come up with 3 different plans. Plan A - basic plan with low premium. Plan B - slightly better plan with medium premium. Plan C - complete coverage with high premium. For an elderly 80 years old low income person, he/she can opt for Plan A since no use to chemo him/her at that age. Making people (rich or poor) paying the same premium is simply exploiting the working class and making the rich richer.

b said...

Another way is to tax a certain % based on income. Thats the aussie way and that is definitely more egalitarian. Those with no income will still get medical coverage without paying. People with high income just have to pay more. This is more fair in my opinion. Why should people with no income deny of healthcare in an self assumed first world state?

b said...

"cuntrees like Aust. Canada .. are considering implementing the ideas and policies of Singapore's public health system."

- where is your evidence?

Anonymous said...

The govt can do all of the above 1 to 6 suggestions and you know, 40% or higher will still vote for the opposition.

I, like you and Roy, are still waiting to withdraw our CPF in one lump sum, song song spend what I like. It is my money after all, you know.

Anonymous said...

It is never enough. Will never be enough.

The opposition is the best.

Goh said...

Cheongkong all cpf by raising minimum sum to a million and give free medical care to all local sinkies whether they have enough medisave or not.
So long as they work the cpf contributed is to be treated as premium.No need having insurance scheme changing rules here n there .
Free medical for life.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ b 447:

>> where's your evidence

OK, I'll clarify one more time for your benefit, not mine. I don't always provide "evidence" for my claims here. I am not a clearing house for data and knowledge.

If you accept that I am just another wayside commentator who makes BASELESS CLAIMS, both our minds would be more at ease. As I've said time after time, I don't write truth, I write satire and opinion---both of rather dubious quality. You you are correct to take a skeptical attitude to whatever I write.

That being said, discard your lazy attitude of expecting me to provide "evidence", and take a proactive step by using your search engine to look for "singapore health care model for __name of cuntree__", i.e. Canada, Australia, even the USA, and judge for yourself.

I don't need you to agree with me to be happy. In fact, I hope you don't agree with me :-)