Harvesting the people’s savings

What are you saving for? Or who are you saving for? Yourself of course : ). I am asking stupid questions again. But I have been thinking lately. I have come to the conclusion that the saver is actually a proxy. Though it looks like he is saving for himself, actually there are 3 real beneficiaries to his life long savings. They are the ones who will harvest the savings of the people. We have been told that we will live till 80 or 90 years. Think about it, by the time a person passes 60, the chances of admission to a hospital grows everyday. By the time he crosses 80 or 90, the probably could be as high as 80% to spend time in our world class hospitals. They are beckoning, come, we will take very good care of you, at a very affordable fee of course. Can’t expect world class facilities, services and professionals to provide free or cheap services right? Just be prepared for a $200k or $300k bill. This is likely to be the average and right size bills in times to come. So, with a few hundred thousands in savings, be very afraid that it can be wiped out in one admission. I can see fear and cold sweat running down the cheeks. Just one admission can bankrupt any average Singaporean. Fear not, for I am your savior. I know you by name and you shall be in good hands. In comes the other big beneficiary of your savings, the insurance man. He will offer you all his best schemes to help you pay for your stay in the world class hospitals. In fact he has been working very hard, thinking of all kinds of schemes, to help you. Very nice and caring people, next to those in the world class hospitals. With the two, you can rest in peace. I bet the hospitals will be most happy knowing the insurance man is going to help their future patients. They probably thank the insurance man for making hospital bills more affordable. And with the payment reduces to maybe $8, the hospitals will be encouraged to make their bills more affordable. Can’t blame them. Training a world class profession is very expensive. And world class facilities won’t come cheap. But they will promise you that their service will get better and betterer. You will be in good hands. Should the hospital raise their fees, the insurance man will coming running to you and happily chanting, fear not, fear not. My Maserati is on the way, just order another one. He will swear that he will not tire to work out the best schemes for you to make sure that your hospital bills will be affordable again. The people are so lucky. Would I need the services of these kind souls? Actually I will be a disappointment to them. After crossing the golden 60, every day is a bonus. Enjoy and make the best out of it. This piece of flesh is going to get more crappy everyday, no matter what one does. It is dust and must return to dust. And when he calls for you to go home, just go lah. He has many palaces waiting for you. Don’t be an asshole and keep him waiting. Don’t throw away your good money to be hooked up in wires and tubes and think that he can’t get you. He does not want your wasting body. He only asks for your spirit. No need to pay a ransom to keep a piece of rotting meat warm. Put it in the freezer will be cheaper. Burn it and throw it into the sea is as good as free. I think I have better use of my money than for it to benefit the two big jaws. The palaces in some remote places are more interesting and worthy to do some charity, and to share and bless the less well off folks. PS. According to a reply by Karen Tan from MOH, the average C Class ward bill is $1,600 and the majority of the patients did not have to pay anything out of pocket. A $100k bill is rare. She emphasized that C Class bill is very affordable. So there is no need to worry about the above scenario. It is probably a fictional situation in the future.

A GE can do wonderful things

The GE is around the corner. The first sign of change is the number of good news and happy news in the media. The people are soooo happy with their lives, all living very well. No more grumblings and kpkbs. Things actually started to change much earlier. The hard and nose in the air attitude were gone. No more talking down to the people. No more, if you can’t afford it, downgrade or move out. No more tightening the belt and live within your means comments. No more disgusting comments. Suddenly the politicians are so humble, so pleasing, understanding, caring and listening and so nice, smiling all the time. The people’s cries of high property prices are met with several remedial actions to curb the rise, but still very affordable. Now $150k hospital bills are also very affordable. And more schemes will come out to make it even more affordable. There is more urgency to tackle the loan shark menace and more were arrested. There was even a wet market being tendered to a big company who wanted to turn it into high class aircon market but this was turned down for fear of higher prices. And approving PRs and intake of foreign talents also go down dramatically with statements that we cannot just depend on foreign talents and low wage workers to keep our economy growing. There is a sudden realization that this is not sustainable wah. And another good piece of news today. The Public Transport Council is delaying the review of transport fare. Everyone reads it as delaying another round of fare increases. Can we blame them? Can we blame the law lecturer, Eugene Tan, for saying that the rationale for the delay in fare hike is likely to avoid another big issue in the GE? Heng ah! I highly recommend that we should hold GE once every two years. Then we will have more pleasant news and pleasant things happening. Do I worry about what would happen after the GE and the next one in another 4 years?

As we embrace inflation…

As we embrace inflation and keep inflating the prices of everything as a sign of progress, the world goes on spinning. $147k hospital bill is real, if there is no subsidy. How did we end up with a C Class ward in a govt hospital charging this kind of bill? Sorry, I forgot, it is privatized govt hospital, privatized for quality and efficiency. Has this got anything to do with the multi million dollar property prices? I bet it does. The doctors too need to earn the money to buy that $6m property, plus all the other trappings of wealth and a good life. They need to be paid handsomely if they are going to be able to afford those properties and all the good things in life. So will the other people in the medical industry. So will all the professionals and talents in the other industries. It will keep on spinning with everyone demanding more to pay for the properties they have an eye on. The workers have their fears. Paying a $100k hospital bill is beyond many average Singaporeans. But have no fear, the Medisave will be tweaked to cover things like congenital illnesses. I don’t know just how much would the Medisave cost and be able to do with a $150k bill? I also don’t know how big is the bill in the B Class ward if mean testing says one cannot be warded in C Class ward. Thank god, they have tweaked the mean testing and allow those who pass the testing to stay in C Class ward but with lower subsidies. Does it mean that ultimately the bill will be nearer to B Class wards that they try to avoid? World class hospitals need world class patients with world class bank accounts to pay world class bills.

The issue of drums, cymbals and gongs

The new directive on what can or cannot be done during Thaipusam is going to become very contentious and a very difficult position to defend. The policy is going to cut very deeply into the credibility of the decision makers. In my view, the thinking behind it is half baked as the repercussion across all community festivals will bear through its naivety. The closest policy in the same vein is the banning of a bicycle event in East Coast Park, very similar thinking, and very short sighted. The controversy will only grow with everyday and with every festival in our multi cultural society. The danger of big festivals is obvious. The death toll of a cultural event in Cambodia was too vivid and recent to be forgotten. So were the cases in India and Saudi Arabia. In huge crowds driven to a frenzy, any small mistake will be multipled and can become a disaster or a tragedy. Even our National Day Celebration or New Year Eve Count Down could turn ugly. The trick is how to manage and control the crowds in big events. The bigger trick is how to introduce directives and manage an event sensibly and fairly without being seen to be discriminatory. Ah, the art of govt and the skills of the policy makers are very demanding in such circumstances. Any half baked idea will quickly back fired.

The man and his thoughts

The Hard Truths was a book about the ideas of a man, his thinking, his perspectives and how he related them to nation building. The reactions to his thoughts are expected from the respective corners of the communities. The rational and objective will analyse and rationalise what he had said. The irrational will react irrationally. The racists or extremists will behave as they are. A whole spectrum of reactions will go through its motion in respond to the sensitive comments in the book. Why would a man who could live life peacefully, kissing children, touring schools to tell grand father tales, did a thing like this, penning his personal thoughts and beliefs that obviously will incur the wrath of the wrong people? The Chinese have a saying, ‘Eat too full, nothing better to do.’ Is this the case of a man who is out to draw flaks on himself? Some have now accused him of chauvinism, racism, anti Malay, anti Islam and many things along this line of thinking. The polite ones will say they disagreed with some of the views expressed in the book. Did he set out to tell the world that he is a chauvinist, a racist, anti Malay or anti Islam? It is important to understand the agenda of the book and the hard truths. What does he want to achieve by saying the unpleasant things at this time of his life when he could say all the good things, all the politically correct things, niceties and to be praised and remembered as someone with kind words? If the readers of the Hard Truths miss out what he set out to do, or intentionally refuse to understand the bigger things, it is a cause lost. The book is all about the pitfalls that could untangle all the efforts in building a cohesive multi racial society, national integration and nation building. Unfortunately not everyone is sensible and composed when issues of race and religion are invoked. The primordial instinct of tribes and religious purity will surface to rule the day and hijack the agenda, even turn it into a contentious issue that requires apology or else. What is there so disagreeable or difficult to agree in the Hard Truths? Is accepting the Hard Truths so difficult and politically wrong? Compare this to the closing down of Nantah in the early days. That was a hot potato, highly emotional and touching the raw nerves of the chauvinists. Till today, the chauvinists have not forgiven the decision maker. Having Nantah teaching mainly in Chinese was divisive in a way. The graduates will present a serious social and political problem if their limited command of the English Language makes them less relevant to the national effort of integration through the primacy of the English Language in government and commerce. The chauvinists will argue that it is as relevant then as it is today. A difference in opinion, just like some will claim that whether under Lim Chin Siong or anyone, Singapore will still be what it is today. The point I am making is that the agenda or motivation of the incident was about national integration, not anti Chinese or trying to kill Chinese education though the direct effect was exactly that. The man and his motivation was and is all about how to make the country relevant and survive despite the opposing forces pulling in different directions. More flexibility, give and take, adaptation and accommodation are needed from every corner to the bigger good of the nation. Sticking rigidly to ones own little corner will undermine the effort of national integration. The Hard Truths was nothing about anti this group or that group. The intent is there for those who want to understand and appreciate it. For those who chose to deride the book and feel offended, it is all a matter of interpretation and looking at things from their own little corner and interests.