Han just discovered that his MediShield premium is now $1,589, double what was deducted ($800) from his Medisave account automatically last year. That's a 100 percent hike. Your chortling at his discomfiture builds as he started to realise his deductible also went up, from $3,000 to $3,500. Then he asked those questions he should have presented to his subject of many interviews:
- Can insurance companies raise their charges without asking their customers whether they wanted the changes?
- Who regulates their business to make sure what they do is in the public interest?
- How then to make good on the pledge and ease Singaporeans' health-care worries?
Suddenly the official excuse is hard to justify, even for a life long apologist, "These revisions are necessary in order for us to stay aligned with the latest claims experience, so we can keep up with Singapore's changing healthcare landscape."
So what are the forthcoming changes in Singapore's changing healthcare landscape? You guessed it. The new Medishield revamp announced at National Day Rally 2013, the nefarious scheme with no choice to opt-out, with new premiums which will definitely be higher. And since the humongous hike that Han experienced has quietly taken place, the additional hike that comes along with MediShield Life won't look that bad. Just like using 6.9 instead of 7.0 million for the Population White Paper figure.
Indonesia is also launching a compulsory national scheme, one that provides free outpatient and Class III hospitalisation, for a mere 25,500 rupiah a month (approx $2.50 a month). And the bottom third of all citizens - some 86.4 million who fall below the poverty line - need not pay. The comprehensive coverage even covers birth, maternity cases and those already ill or getting treatment. "Now, the poor get health protection, the poor can get free medical treatment. This is guaranteed by BPJS," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party. Words you'll never hear from the sorry excuse of a pink shirted politician.
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| Guaranteed to make you puke |
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Don't be fooled by the "bitching' by Han and others like him. The increase in premium is not enough even to tickle these fat cats. The electioneering started some time ago and these pieces are mere trial balloons floated by the powers that be through their surrogates. The frequency of these pieces and op-eds by so-called intellectuals from their think tanks should have alerted you and others to their hidden agenda.
ReplyDeleteWithout even addressing the insufficiency of the CPF solely for retirement, all I can see is the government walking backwards.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you, if the problems remain unaddressed while the government continues to put in such ridiculous policies that only push costs higher up for individuals, PAP is only bringing forth its inevitable demise.
so, opposition parties need to say little about what's going on. neither do we, except to highlight the bad news.
Deletejust sit back and let the PAP dig its grave itself and commit suicide...
What do you expect from a political party founded by a Chinese guy working for the Imperial Japanese Army as a translator?
ReplyDeleteHow does voting PAP benefit me, the individual Singaporean?
ReplyDeleteI'm just voting for a lifetime of debt and endless bills I have to pay and pay.
After toiling our lives away and when it's time for us to relax a bit with our hard earned savings which they took from us under the guise of retirement savings, we find that we are entitled to less and less of it; being told that the state knows better than us how much we need.
DeleteWhat kind of pirates den are we living in.
Excuse me...just to clarify...
ReplyDeleteYes you pay and pay...to feed, clothed and benefit these "people" at forever to your own cost...
What do you and we get in return...more pay and pay?
Interesting...these "people" take...with no risk to life, limb nor their futures...
Yet these "people" scream and cry for more pay and pay from the people of singapore...
It is NUTS!
A contract is a contract. You get what you pay. An insurance contract is supposed to transfer your future medical risks to the insurer. Where else in the world do you see contract backdoors where insurers are allowed to vary the terms and conditions after you have already signed on the dotted line. It means your risk is still your risk.
ReplyDeleteSome pigs are more equal than others. Enough said. Vote out the PAP!
Wait till the premiums for Medishield Life are announced. The increase will not be just 100% but 999.99%!! So don't be shock because the current increase is only a trial run that has shown that the insured cannot do anything about the increases..
ReplyDeleteWho regulates? Han might not have heard that red dot is a kleptocracy? Its free for all for the connected, especially when the GE is still far away! Maximise their takings these next 2 years, then come 2015, tone down a little, and once 2016 GE is over, the milking cycle re-starts. Silliporeans are really fatty lambs, takes 2 years to fatten, and 4 years to slaughter. Its the same cycle for the last 48 years, and probably more good years for papigs ahead. Lambs never change, its their destiny.
ReplyDeleteWhat is so wrong about having a Singapore government to pay the insurance premiums for Singaporeans above 55 years of age?
ReplyDeleteWhere is the money going to come from?
From the government budget surplus.
When the PAP government runs a budget surplus, it means that they have over-taxed the Singaporeans.
That is what a government budget surplus means.
"When the PAP government runs a budget surplus, it means that they have over-taxed the Singaporeans"
DeleteAgree but I would add that they overtax the average joe, but for the top 10%, they are all here for the ultra low taxes. I would also add that they make surplus not only by overtaxing the average joe, they are under-spending in areas which does not generate "GDP growth" by deliberately cutting and outsourcing to squeeze the cheapest, bestest and fasterest from suppliers who turn around and higher more FTs. Either that or their $2 crony companies get the fattest contracts from the garmen. Small and efficient garment, red dot style :)
Somebody has to pay for that expensive silk Lao Fu Zhi oriental outfit.
DeleteThat red lao fu zhi outfit looks like those used to dress corpses.
DeleteKilling (pardon the pun) two birds with one stone - mah.
DeleteSo those who have been paying regular medical insurance premiums in the past must be in vain because they keep shifting the goal posts to increase premiums at the slightest opportunity ? One would have thought that past paid premiums if unclaimed would have help contribute against future medical costs but at the rate they are going, it looks like every one including that PAP's shit times editor is at the mercy of insurance companies !
ReplyDeleteSo will our PAP Govt behave exactly just like the mindset of another insurance company, even though they now claim that they will cover everyone eventually ?
Insurance firms are just big time blood suckers.
DeleteI find that Han Fook Kwang is really stupid if he really only find that his premium has doubled. It also means that medical cost will even skyrocket. Any fool can see who mastermind these increase in premium and medical cost ? Those clowns might have thought they win big in term of profiting both in term of premium and medical cost (hospitalization etc). May I ask where in the world where the premium is happily increased by the government without addressing lowering down medical cost ? Only in SinCity where the government has a stake in taking money by using law and conflict of interest. We know how PAP works , don't we ?
ReplyDeleteBetter die soon.
ReplyDeleteDeath and taxes, you can't escape either.
DeleteYou are on the wrong channel lah.... Its unreasonable increase in cost for medical insurance. Things are so expensive that its better to die than to be sick. OR did i mean it as a curse ? 8(
DeleteOnly two things in life are certain - death and taxes. Let's see if you can get an exemption.
Deletei bet you can since you are so smart.
DeleteHow to solve our high medical insurance premium problem?
ReplyDeleteVote out the PAPigs.
Don't waste your time engaging the PAPigs in a NatCON.
It's time to vote in political parties who can make our lives better.
...the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Orwell
Suddenly the U.S.' terrible medical insurance scheme and super high healthcare cost don't look so horrible! But then the U.S. is deep, deep debt, here. our Govt. is supposed to be richer than God! Go figure.
ReplyDeleteWith that kind of premium, you might as well go have yourself covered under a private insurance plan. I mean, at 5.3m we are already facing bed crunches..what makes you think you will have a bed when the time comes, despite forking out all that premiums?
ReplyDeleteGood point.
DeletePay high insurance premiums.
But still no hospital beds for you when you fall sick.
So insurance no use right?
So how to guarantee a hospital bed for yourself when you need one?
Vote Opposition of course!!
Why are PAP Millionaires like Josephine Teo living in an air-conditioned dome?
ReplyDeletePAPigs think it is because of their hard work, talent and planning.
But Singaporeans know.
PAP Millionaires live in an air-conditioned dome because of Singaporeans' daft willingness to sacrifice everything in order to make PAP's policies succeed.
Example:
Singapore has the worst education system in the world.
PAP Education Ministers form an unbroken chain of failure.
But instead of voting out the PAPigs.
What do Singaporean parents do?
Singaporean parents hire private tutors to make up for the shortcomings in the education system.
So PAP Education Ministers continue to think that they don't need to have a background in education to succeed as an Education Minister.
Don't believe me?
I challenge Millionaire Heng Swee Keat to ban private tuition for one year.
After one year, when the exam results come out.
I want to see if Heng Swee Keat will still have a job.
If Singapore schools and teachers are really that good.
They will be able to save Heng Swee Keat's job.
Right?
JT said if not for the sake of politics, she wanted to have one more baby. So she is saying she is sacrificing herself just like the other one who said if not for the sake of politics, she would have earned much more.
DeleteIf PAP women think (& men) have that kind of mindset, it will be a sorry state of affairs for Singapore to be governed by such minded people. Always thinking in terms of their own personal sacrifices first. Some more "No dignity" if not paid enough, WTF PAP ?
Ban private tuition for a year?!! It'll never happen.
DeleteTheir kids need their 1-on-1 private tutoring and it'll be a disgrace if they're caught infringing bans.
So PAP will succeed as long as Singaporeans are willing to subsidize bad PAP policies by sacrificing their own well being?
DeleteIs this the blank cheque that Singaporeans give to PAP for the last 50 years?
When Tan Cheng Bock says no more blank cheques.
Is this what he means?
why is MOE rehires a retiree as a consultant since 2008 and pays him super-scale salary?
DeleteIn other words, I am using my dwindling medisave to pay for my two aged parents amounting to $5000+ in total. Where is the subsidy for my aged parents and will I be getting them since I am footing on their behalf thru my medisave? I smell more loopholes to pay more to the govt coffer.
ReplyDelete