Political party manifesto 5

No one shall be deprived of hospital care A motherhood statement that is politicallly correct to say but must be seen to be done. Means testing may be one way to do it to make sure that no one is deprived of hospital care and no one shall take advantage of hospital subsidies. Of course this is debatable. There are many ways to skin a cat. Maybe skinning a cat is not the right choice of phrase as it connotes the meaning of tearing off something and causing pain. There are many ways of providing health care, or there are many ways of charging health care. I think for political parties, the key issue is how to provide health care at a reasonable cost and not how to make profits from the sick. But both can still exist side by side, make profits to subsidise the less able to pay. At the profit end, there are people who are willing to pay and it is criminal not to make profits from them. At the lower end when people are sick and unable or unwilling to pay too much, it is sinful to force them to pay. Political parties have to strike a balance between the two and hopefully making one pays for the other. It would be nice to hear political parties come out with a position that B2 and C wards will be subsidised without the tedious and mean process of means testing. That people are given a choice to choose to pay little or pay more and the hospital facilities structured accordingly. Political parties should not have evil thoughts and mean minds to skin the poor and those who do not want to be skinned. The attempt to skin, the obsession to skin is bad.

Changi and NUH up charges

Singaporeans are so lucky that both hospitals have not raised their fees for the last 10 years. Finally, when costs are pushing up after 10 long years, they have decided that some of the fees like A & E have to go up by 10 to 15%. For the sceptical and cynical, they might argue that for the two hospitals to maintain the rates for 10 years without increasing, then either the fees they charged 10 years ago were giving them very good returns or that they were absorbing all the increasing costs and suffering losses. It all depends on how one looks at an issue. One can criticise or rejoice, complain or praise according to how one interpret the data. But the truth will still be out there.

CPF - Grabbing at straws

The Straits Times gives Chua Mui Hoon almost one whole page of the Editorial Page to justify why it is good to raise the withdrawal age for the minimum sum to 65. It is so pathetic. Her only good reason for not returning the money to its rightful owner is for CPF Board to improve its returns to the people. Who cares about those miserable returns that could not even keep pace with the GST increases. It is a non issue. Nobody is interested in the interest rate. The longer the money is kept, the lesser it is worth. The issue is what right has the govt to keep on holding on to the people's money? The life long savings of the people must be returned to the people at the earliest possible as it is their just reward for a life time of struggling and working. This is the last contentment for the ageing and dying men and women and no one shall deprive them of it. They have worked for a life time, waited for a life time, looking forward to this moment to breathe a little easier, to touch the money that they have slogged and saved all this while. How cruel it can be to die without seeing it, without touching it and without being able to spend it for themselves, to go for that holiday, to buy a good meal for themselves, or a little toy for their own amusement?

The strong Sing dollar

We have one of the strongest currency in the world. Great. Imagine what I can do with $200k in India. The thought of the possibilities is so pleasant. Find a little village and live like small Maharajah. Thanks to our strong dollar. Now the bad news. It is not even enough for my retirement here. Not enough even to buy a 4 room flat in town. May not be enough to go for a major operation in our world class hospitals. Barely enough to buy a good entry level continental car. That is the value of our strong dollar at home. Can any Singaporean with $200k afford to retire here? What about all those who have less than $30k when they retire? It is the good life,so bless to live in the golden years of this island paradise. I rather spend my money in the not so golden era of India and enjoy my twilight years bathing under the golden ray of my $200k. The rich poor Singaporeans. That is really stretching the dollar. Blessed are the Singaporeans.

When LKY talks about caution

Yes LKY cautioned that if we let our rental run wild and beat Hongkong to it, we will lose our competitiveness. We will gain the coveted title of the most expensive Asian city and make many property owners very happy. But that will be the last euphoria. Who is LKY addressing this remark? Food for thought.