8/30/2007
Myth 159 Stay healthy no hospital bills
Stay healthy no hospital bills
This is what Singaporeans believe or were told to believe. Stay healthy, lead a healthy life style and cut down on medical or hospitalisation bill. Now take a deep breath and think about this carefully. You imagine that you are healthy, have a clean bill of health. So you don't spend anything on medication or medical bills. You save on hospital bills.
Is that what you believe in? You are dead wrong.
The reality is that Singaporeans are paying their hospital bills in advance. How much? It depends on how much you have in your Medisave. That is money you have paid in advance. Many have paid $30k without being sick or being admitted to a hospital. Advance Medical Directives? This is advanced payment of medical bills, in a way. For you cannot touch the money unless you pay it out. Otherwise, if you have dependents they will hopefully inherit them after your death. There is no fixed date for withdrawal unlike the minimum sum or annuity.
And if you have no dependents, tough.
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8 comments:
Staying healthy is one thing—and as if this isn't hard enough given the "problems" life keeps slinging at us.
Being born with a good set of genes is another.
You have nothing to say when you were living in the 3rd world of yesteryears. back then you were living hand to mouth and nobody expected much of you.
Now that you have substantial income and costs have escalated like a few hundred percent, how you dispose of them may eventually be an issue of personal reponsibility and accountability where state subsidies are concerned.
When you have alot of money and you choose not to allocate any of it for your future medical expenditure, expecting the state to foot the bill instead, that becomes an issue.
i for one would not expect the govt to foot my medical bill. i have made all my provisions for it. so why should i be compelled to make more provisions?
this argument 'who would foot the bill if?' is a lame excuse. you don't imprison the whole population because you think someone might commit a crime.
what the govt is doing is to punish those who are responsible and already planning their lives carefully and making them pay for the irresponsible.
In Sg you dun get imprisoned and punished unless you commit a serious offence like rape or murder. But I do see you have a point. It would be good if they have an opt-out scheme with certain eligibility criterias to make people like you happy. Under the difficult circumstances I still think the govt using the CPF to help plan our retirement is a good idea.
no, it is a very bad idea.
by 55, for the newer generation, most will have enough education to think for themselves and lead their own lives. unless our education system is a farce.
at 55, the govt should provide all the options available for the people to choose. they can take all the money out or keep some in cpf or annuity. if the schemes are good, many will willingly put the money in. use the carrot, higher interest, bonuses etc. even today, there are many who will choose to live a large sum of their cpf money in the cpf for higher returns and safe keeping. why the need for compulsion? losing faith in the people or in the goodness of the cpf system?
any compulsion is bad. if there is to be, it must be minimal. now we are compelled to keep a large sum in medisave, in huge minimum sum and in annuity! after attaining an age when we are mature, sensible and experienced and have seen the pitfalls of life....
how stupid can singaporeans be?
you a singaporean?
He's the mother hen wannabe of Singaporeans
you are lucky to hear the mother hen cackling away. otherwise you won't even know why you are served on the table as virgin chicken.
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