I have failed…

Yes, I have failed in my mission to bring down medical cost. Over the last four years, instead of bring down medical cost, they have spiralled by very substantial amounts. I am talking about increases of 50% to 90%. I must thank Salma Khalik for her data to confirm, without any doubt, that I have failed very badly. I think I should from now on stop talking cock about medical cost and how to bring it down. And now for the good news about rising medical cost. Salma Khalik has interviewed Boon Wan and these are some of the good news and developments in the medical field that partly contributed to the high medical cost. 1. Don’t worry, despite the big hospital bills, the patients have no difficulties paying them. Isn’t that comforting? 2. And there are the wonderful 3M schemes to pay the bills, some up to 100%. So no need to pay more cash, maybe $3 only. 3. And the bills could be even more if not of the brilliant scheme to move not so sick patients out of hospitals to community hospitals and nursing homes. Big savings there. 4. Day surgery also plays a big role in cutting down the overall bills. 5. The hospitals have also been very customer oriented, to ensure patient satisfaction and allowed them to choose non standard items that are not subsidised. So they cannot complain about higher bills. And definitely they are happy to pay more to be better satisfied. 6. The best part, the bottom line ‘We have good high standard public hospitals that are affordable because of 3Ms. Ok I have failed. On the other hand Boon Wan has done a terrific job and we have a very high standard of medical care at very affordable prices. This reminds me of HDB flats affordability. The only difference is that HDB you got to pay. In medical bills, no need to pay, or pay very little, because 3Ms pay for you.

Buying up Singapore

The Malaysians are getting more aggressive in their forays into foreign business. In economic terms, being aggressive is ok. The Malaysians have a big picture and a new ball game to play in Singapore. With everything on the table for sale, the Malaysians are making hay while the sun shines. First they bought over GK Goh Stockbrokers, now they are buying Kim Eng Securities. In Singapore, the stockbroking business is seen as a sunset industry, dying. So Singapore stockbrokers have been advised to sell off this dying business. In Malaysia they must have been advised otherwise. They must still believe that it is a golden goose that will lay more eggs into the future. Who is right and who is wrong only time will tell. In the Malaysian big plan I think they will not stop at just buying two broking houses. Next could be one of the big banks. DBS should be very attractive when the price is right. How about SIA? This will be the apple of their eyes to replace MAS. And if they can buy over PSA, there is no need to worry about Gelang Patah. They can even promote PSA to the fullest and export all their goods through Singapore. And they would probably need a 3rd and 4th links. There are many more worthy assets to buy over. Keep the momentum going. This is simply brilliant. While Singapore is strategizing on how to integrate into Malaysia, Malaysia has its own idea on how to integrate Singapore into Malaysia.

Changing values and changing morality

Not too long ago there was this brilliant businessman with an equally brilliant idea to profit from his trading business. Oh, they don’t called businessmen brilliant then, but astute. Today they will probably tagged them as super talents if they can come up with devious schemes to max profits, even if it means fleecing their customers. What the businessman did was to simply corner the rice market, a monopoly or a cartel, and then control the demand and supply of rice. He could then determine whatever price he wanted. Nothing spectacular, and no need a Ph D to come up with such a scheme. But making huge indecent profits at the expense of the customers was not an acceptable thing to do, then. The govt immediately swung into action. It needed to protect the interest of the people. That was the morality and value of the day. A govt importing agency was set up to counter this move. The businessman was outsmarted and lost, his scheme was not allowed to become a reality. And the people’s interest was safe guarded. Morality and values have changed. Today, anyone with any idea or scheme to fleece their customers and max profits for the organization will be treated like a hero. They will ascend the ladder to super talent status. Take the staple rice as an example again. This time round, if someone is to come out with an idea on how to profit from this item, I think he would be patted on the back and say ‘Good work’. The idea could be something like this. Ok, first the moral justification. This must be put right first, even if it is rubbish. But must still make it sounds right. Rice is a staple food, and a scarce resource. People should not waste rice. Importing rice is also a drain on our foreign exchange. With such reasons in place, now the brilliant scheme can be enforced. Because rice is so important and cannot be wasted, people must be encouraged to eat less rice and waste less rice. How to do it? Hit the people where it hurts, their pockets. The price of rice shall now be double. Profit immediately doubles. But this is not enough. Each household is rationed at 2 kg of rice per month. Household consuming more than 2 kg shall pay a surtax of 30%. What is this for? How to justify this? Elementary, this is to educate the people on the importance of rice and not to waste rice or eat too much rice. See, more profits coming in. Wow, with such a brilliant idea, I am even thinking betterer than the professors from the best universities in the USA. I think I shall award myself the title of Eminent Professor of Economics. And Wally will say, hehe : ) And Matilah will say don't talk cock, so and so has written this in his book in year 1955.

Another frightening article on market pricing

This article is on the front page of Today paper called ‘Missed opportunity in parking policy’. It was written by a smart professor, a foreign talent of course, called Paul Barker. Actually it does not need a professor to think of market pricing for car parks. I can do better, not bluffing, if my intention is to rob the motorists. The gist of the article is that car parks should be priced according to demand and supply, using market mechanism. I couldn’t help laughing. Applying it will just go the HDB way, the ERP way, the COE way. When supply exceeds demand it will only mean one thing, UP! Imagine what parking fees will be in the CBD if parking is charged according to market mechanism? Bee tang to the operators! Our physical constraints make market mechanism impractical. It is suicidal to go that way. Market mechanism cannot be blindly applied to housing, cars, car parks, medical services, and many other things here!

Stupid Bank

My friend related this incident to me. His rich Malaysian client came to Singapore to open a joint account with his daughter. The client has already an account in this stupid bank. You know what? They made him wait for two hours before attending to him. He got so frustrated that he even closed his existing account and went to another local bank to open his account. And the service was simply swift and efficient. The stupid bank simply lost a big customer and not only that, its bad service will be spread by this client to his friends. And better still, this stupid bank is in the process of doing something unproductive, like checking on old records of clients and if the photocopies of ICs in their record are not to their liking they are asking their clients to make another copy for their records. They think the clerks in the banks have nothing useful to kill time but their high net worth clients will have time to take the trouble to make photocopies of ICs to send to the stupid bank. Instead of doing business or making things easy for its clients, it chose to irritate clients with its stupidity and arrogance. Ridiculous but the stupid bank will claim that it is efficiency and the right thing to do.