Medical services, housing, education, public transportation, etc, are normally provided by the govt as institutions to serve the people. These organizations were set up using public funds to provide a cheaper alternative to their private counterparts. They have to be cheaper and decent enough to be of any use to benefit the people. They are the reasons why there is a govt and why people have to pay taxes.
Can the people accept the services of public institutions like hospitals, transportation, housing and education to be more expensive than private institutions when the former is fully paid by the public while the latter were established by private funds? The people should scream foul even if they are priced the same or slightly cheaper. It must be much cheaper as they are built using the people’s money. A large part of the cost is already paid by the people themselves. Bad or poor quality service of such institutions is not acceptable and might as well save the money if they are meant to be that way.
Can you believe it if such services are charged the same or similar as the private sector? If they do, they should be disbanded or sold to the private sector and the money be returned to the people. The govt should not be allowed to set up public service institutions with public money if they cannot charge cheaper than the private sector with privately sourced money.
It is simple economic reasoning and justification. It is common sense. Using public money to set up public institutions is like having them for free. And to charge near the same rate or more than the private sector is nonsense and unacceptable.
It is time that the govt reviews all the public institutions that are not competitive vis a vis the private operators, stop providing them and lower the taxes on the people. Let the private sector run them using private money. Public institutions that cannot compete with private institutions on better and cheaper services have no economic reason to exist. It is actually a waste of public fund and tax payers’ money.
12 comments:
Private enterprise is fine provided the competition is REAL and there's very little barrier for entry. Anybody can enter, but no one is guaranteed success or even survival. The free market is unswervingly rewarding or punishing. Sometimes rewards are spectacular. More often punishment is swift and brutal. That folks, is the nature of FREEDOM. Like it or not, freedom,like any value, is not free, you have to pay for it.
Greetings from Holland V. It's wonderful to be checked-in once again in Hotel Singapore.
Have a great water dragon year. May the gods of money shit gold bars on your head, and come all over your face and in your mouth with silver ingots. :-P
P. S. AUD - SGD 1.32. Yeeeesssss!!
Hi Matilah, apologies, both of us wouldn't be able to make it tonight.
Happy new year and enjoy your fantastic exchange rate.
Cheers mate.
Completely agree.
What I don't understand is why so many Singaporeans automatically assume that private is more expensive than public.
In assessing cost e.g. a medical condition, you need to count the total cost of successful treatment.
I find private doctors are able to make the correct diagnosis during the first 1 or 2 appointments.
That correct diagnosis saves a lot of money because the cure is quickly executed.
Disband government service organizations?
These organizations are established with tax money precisely to care and provide essential goods and services to the people at little or no profit.
IT IS THE DUTY OF THE(ANY) GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE THESE SERVICES AND TO BUILD THE NECESSARY INFRASTRUCTURES TO SUPPORT THE SERVICES.
They do provide the services BUT MADE HUGE PROFITS OUT OF THEM. They care not that many Singaporeans are not able to afford to cope with expenses incurred in using these goods and services. Of course You die your bizness when You cannot afford. What can one do to change them? They are not even afraid of sin, not even prick by conscience and want to be paid millions for ruling us.
What a sinful lot!
patriot
Public hospitals should be efficient, affordable, and available to all citizens if we are to be considered first world nation. It should not be profit driven but care and compassion driven.
"If the government has any conscience it must not make profits from hospitals and medical treatments."
And that is nub of the problem.
We are dealing with leaders without any human values.
They only value maximizing accounting profits.
LKY already warned us many years ago.
We are just "digits".
But we didn't take him seriously. We thought he was just a nice harmless old man.
"If the government has any conscience it must not make profits from hospitals and medical treatments."
That is the nub of the problem.
Dear redbean.
You may want to check out ANON:January 27, 2012 9:33 PM
It's full of blank spaces.
And it looks like a new form of censorship by the PAP internet brigade.
All other subsequent posts will not be seen unless you scroll down the page.
If daft Singaporeans know that this unaccountable and opaque government has gone to the extent of asking private practitioners not to charge lower fee and to follow the government's fee rules to be consistent with the government hospital, will daft Singaporeans be mad about this?
Investigation into NKF has revealed that NKF charged same as or higher fee than the private setup and claimed NKF fee is heavily subsided. What did the daft Singaporeans react to it?
The life in Singapore is very bad. It is not because the bad people (MIWs) makes it that way. It is because the good people (smart Singaporeans) remain silent about it.
Thanks for the observation Anon 9:34. I have deleted and repost comment by Southernglory below here.
By charging high hospital bills and medical fees the Party can claim that the government can rake in billions of dollars in revenue because of the Party's talent and ability. It follows that the Party can then unashamely claim high sinful performance bonus for their ministers to the tune of millions of dollars. In the meantime what does the Party care when the poor and middle class suffer in silence. Many who suffer illnesses like cancer, kidney trouble, cardiac diseases and diabetes are unable to pay for the high cost of treatment and so eventually they just wait to die. If the government has any conscience it must not make profits from hospitals and medical treatments.
Very often the government will check on private hospital charges and then raise public hospital charges to that of the former. Similarly the private hospitals will check on Public hospital charges and raise their medical charges even higher. This is indeed a continuous evil spiral cycle at the expense of the people. When can the daft Singaporeans tell the Party and the government that enough is enough and that the people cannot tolerate any more. Remember what to do come 2016.
Southernglory1
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