A better and more popular alternative

Why not have a non citizen class or all not citizens pay the full rate? After all they are all talents and should be quite capable of paying for world class medical bills. And PRs will only be admitted to B1 and A wards. The increase earnings can then be used to subsidise citizens under the present system and forget about the mean testing. This may give more votes to the party too or at least the people will be less angry.

Privatisation plays a major role in Singapore's success

Any public or govt organisations that is not performing or inefficient, privatisation will make them more efficient and more profitable. We should go ahead and privatise all govt hospitals, LTA and ERP operations. And all can be listed in the stock market.

As the worries mount

People are getting worried. There are all kinds of situations, conditions and permutations that will make any kind of mean testing inadequate. But we are behaving like the military. Once a decision has been made to go ahead, just go ahead, right or wrong, good or bad. Or else there will be a lost of faith, a breakdown in command and a sign of weakness in leadership. With whatever scheme that is going to be introduced, will C Class patients pay more or the same as B2 or B2 paying the same as B1 etc? Has the govt forgotten its primary duty of providing healthcare and let the people choose what they can afford? Or it is now the responsibility of the govt to determine who should eat what the govt thinks they can afford? Why is the govt thinking that it is its right to decide how people spend their money?

1,500 chicken culled in an exercise

This is the most realistic exercise we ever had to protect ourselves from bird flu. 1,500 chicken coming across the causeway were culled as part of a major exercise. As exercises become more serious, the more realistic the better will the participants learn and be prepared for the real thing. The next exercise on a building collapse will probably see the falling of a building with living people inside. The casualties will be collateral damage and necessary to make the exercise real. And the simulation of a terrorist attack, I can't imagine how real it can be. Wonder if any country will conduct military exercise involving live ammunitions and life being sacrificed? Iraq is a kind of life military exercise to test weapons and systems I supposed. Animals or lives are dispensable to achieve our aims of protecting more lives. All those who are protesting against cruelties to animals involved in lab test please buck off. If we can just culled 1,500 chicken for an exercise, what is a little pain and suffering. We are progressing very rapidly.

What went wrong with the taxi fare hike?

The taxi drivers are the people on the ground who fully appreciate and understand the situation. They were hit hard and need to lower cost or maybe raise fare a little to cover the rising cost. They knew their customers well and how much they could afford to bear. Those who think that a hefty hike is the way are people with a lot of money and think that taxi passengers are as rich as them. This is the first out of touch premise. If they have listened to the taxi drivers, they would not push the limit that far. The second mistake is to forget the cardinal principle of little increases, bit by bit, and tell the passengers that the small increases are affordable. Then increase a little every few months to get the passengers use to the higher prices. This principle was forgotten in the heat of the moment. Insanity creeps in and we have the hefty and justifiable increases.