Half of the money is expected to be expended over the next 10 years, after which the rest of the 450,000 eligible seniors (this number is also up for debate) who are still alive will be facing other challenges - higher Goods and Services Taxes (GST), train fares, utility charges, town council tariffs, etc. You were thinking perhaps $8b divided by 450,000?
Although the Finance Minister made the announcement in February, the goodies will trickle in at a snail's pace. Additional subsidies for specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) and polyclinics kick in only in September. Subsidies for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) at general practitioners (GPs) and dental clinics will be available only in January 2015. Subsidies for MediShield Life premiums won't be seen until late 2015, or later. Before you even know it, 2014 will be over, and a few of the qualifying seniors would have kicked the bucket, without benefiting a cent from the "move which honours generation who built nation". There are no subsidies for burial or cremation expenses.
Bottomline, nobody will ever know how much of the promise will be delivered. What will definitely be expended in 2014 are these boondoggles:
$12.6b for Defence (up 3.2%)
$6.2b for Transport (up 3.8%)*
$4.2b for Home Affairs (up 8.4%)
$0.5b for Prime Minister's Office (up 18.5%)
$0.5b for Organs Of State (up 18.2%)
* on top of the many increases planned in collaboration with the Public Transport Council (PTC)
Economists said that the $1.16b represents a relatively small budget deficit, easily recoverable by tweaking, say the collectible $10.1b GST (up 6.1%), which is payable by all, young or old, infirmed or healthy, unemployed or salaried.
Khaw Boon Wan is obviously the wrong guy to "definitely debunk the perception that health care is unaffordable". They use to say that economic growth has priority over democracy because you can't eat democracy. Guess what? You can't eat subsidies either. Because of the co-payment element of the healthcare system, you can't afford to see a doctor without cash in your wallet, even though there's still money sitting pretty in your MediSave account.
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The Speaker of Parliament told the grassroots (meaning PAP ones) to make the message simple. What could be simpler than yours, Tattler? Congrats.
ReplyDeleteTo the punch, as expected Tattler.
ReplyDeleteI thank god for good writer like you around, doing the silent service for the silent majority.
Before loss of Aljunied GRC, no free lunch. After that and Punggol East, the ruling party suddenly remember the pioneer gen.
ReplyDeleteFor decades, we have been practically begging PAP to do something for the seniors and one Minister even admitted that he is deaf. If they had not lost Aljunied & Punggol seats, looks like they wouldn't have pretended to be so kind now. Remember another minister even asked what meals can the poor expect : hawker, foodcourt or restaurant ? So what make them change their stingy minds ?
DeleteAll my friends agree on one thing : they are desperate and are attempting to buy votes from the seniors .... not much different from Thaksin being so nice to the rice farmers ?
WTF, PAP!
$8 Khaw is definitely the wrong guy to debunk healthcare is unaffordable because of his nickname "$8 Khaw" for heart surgery in Sinkapore. LOL.
ReplyDeleteHe will be credible and believe-able only when PG can pay $8 for their heart surgery.
DeleteWhat he and Chua Mui Hoong are doing, is debunking rhetoric. NOT a single cents $ is given out, all in the form of subsidies. No point telling me the cost is marked up high to $1000 to start with and pg used to get 30% discount, but now they get 60% discount. Still have to pay some cash right? Just like the HDB scam.
HK pays up to $6,000 cash = S$1000 per pax.
Shitty Times and the ministers are a pack of hounds now out on full force about $8b con job.
DeleteAnd almost $0.5 billion a year to the People's Association
ReplyDeleteThat is still a 8 zeros sum = 500,000,000.00 !!
DeleteRead:
Deletefive hundred million (500 Million) Sing$ !!
$0.5b for Prime Minister's Office (up 18.5%)
ReplyDeleteHmm.. I wonder if the huge budget is for the "full size pirate galleon, a private petting zoo, golden toilets and a huge garage of cars and motorbikes at his luxury country house"
Sorry, can't resist ;)
For those MIW like "tooth pick Lim Sia Suay, Fatso Iswanra, ungracious Fu"
DeleteRead:
Deletefive hundred million (500 Million) Sing$ !!
There is no deficit if you include land sales and net investment returns contribution (NIRC) from the sovereign wealth funds, which they conveniently squirrel into the reserves year after year. And there are unspent endowment funds (eg Medifund) which go into reserves - a real black hole.
ReplyDelete450,000 qualify for the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP), which is healthcare related? This is a diminishing number, because nobody lives forever. Are those ex-civil servants with free medical gold cards qualified? Don't get bamboozled by all the hoopla about the government's generocity - this is a pre-election sweetener to draw in all the old geezers.
My opinion about the PGP - Adverse Opinion
Too little, too late.
DeleteRemember the incompetent Malaysian Govt can pay more than 6% dividends for their EPF funds while our efficient PAP govt can only afford a miserable 2.5% up to 4% for S$60K maximum of our CPF funds.
DeleteJust imagine how much our Govt has deprived us of our rightful entitlement by pocketing the differential profits in investing our CPF savings while any investment losses are incurred by all of us anyway.
I'm sure this rightful entitlement can pay for a whole range of benefits for each and everyone of us if our PAP govt has not been so cunning & calculative all these years ! They must be real hypocrites when what they are doing now is actually using our rightful entitlements to payback some small benefits which should have been done years back since they have been earning such massive profits from the CPF funds.
They squirrel to their own pocket. Even president Ong Teng Cheong cannot audit them.
DeleteIt should be clear that $8 billion will go to the Pioneer Generation Fund to meet the full estimated cost of the Pioneer Generation Package over time. In other words, the direct beneficiaries are GIC and TH and not the pioneer generation. However, the public will still be made to pick up the bill for the "deficit" incurred sooner or later. Huat ah, every package and solution the government devises is a Wealth Generation Package for themselves.Leopard doesn't change its spots.
ReplyDeleteYet there are many who believe this is true & that they will get something from the Gov. Wait till they experience how it actually operates in real time.
ReplyDeleteAlways having brilliant ideas and a glib tongue to market them. I wonder if they sleep peacefully at night... or do they sleep in the day?
When will someone within stand up and put a stop to all this... cant believe 100% civil servants and gang supports everything.
Amazing... truly amazing...
Co-payment is the smaller issue elderly faces.
ReplyDeleteFirst there is a huge deductible of $1500 in your Medishield Class C Medishield contract you have to fork out your money to pay at each hospitalisation or outpatient surgery. Somehow no matter what my father's illness, the total bill payable by us in each hospitalisation always end up just below $1500, so Medishield ended up paying zero every time! The admin at the hospitals probably keep tab of the total bill real time. When your bill hits the deductible limit above which Medishield has to pay, they discharge you regardless!
Second, much of that $8b will be recouped when paid into elderlies' Medisave accounts because it will be used to pay for the now mandatory Medishield Life (ie straight back into garmen's coffers). Those who never had insurance will get an insurance policy that really pays nothing especially if you are in Class C ward. And each year's Medisave top up will be just enuf to pay for the new Medishield Life premiums (which you can bet your last dollar, will be even higher than recently increased medishield premiums. My father is 82, he pays well above $1000 per year for Medishield now, which has paid for exactly zero in his last 3 hospitalisations!
There you go, at least Thaksin coughed up his own money to buy votes, four-legged admin officers have coocked up schemes which don't even cost a single cent and they are counting on winning 450k votes, or at least not losing any more seats in 2015/16!
Unless we get paid in cash, I don't believe in any of these PAP government "subsidies".
ReplyDeleteDo PAP Ministers get paid in million dollar cash or million dollars worth of subsidies?
If PAP Ministers only want to be paid in cash;
Why should the rest of us Singaporeans accept payment in "subsidies" ?
You have made a very good point. Just like the HDB housing subsidy made to appear as a huge deficit when in reality it is simple manipulation of the prices & grants but never based on the actual costs of building the flats!
DeleteWayang at its best. Jack everything up then give subsidy and claim that you are losing money. Give to a small group that will get smaller and then make it as if so many benefit. Rob Ah Tan to pay Ah Lim. Works every time. Singaporeans are daft indeed.
ReplyDeleteI remember trying to apply for the use of my CPF medisave for my monthly high blood pressure & chlorestorol medicine but was told that I can't apply because the amount was lower than the stipulated minimum amount. The polyclinic cashier tells me to ask the doctor to issue me medicine for a longer period in order to qualify to use my medisave savings.
DeleteBut what the fuck they have so many conditions governing the use of my own CPF medisave savings, they never tell you in advance. The limit is only a few hundred per year they allow us to use medisave and yet they have so many restrictions.
If you are really sincere in helping the people, then don't impose all these kind of nonsense as if we are really beggars . WTF, PAP.
$0.5b for Prime Minister's Office (up 18.5%)
ReplyDeleteAt this rate of increase, the headline should be
$70 billion set aside for PMO for the next 20 years.
Read:
Deleteseventy thousand million (70,000 Million) Sing$ !!
meanwhile, another 90 mins of track fault in Kranji line. This after we have paid them billions and they raised further fares!
ReplyDeleteSo maybe the healthcare subsidies means they "paid out $8b" in discount, and the premium for medishield Life will double (? still unknown) and you only get beds in tentages and corridors lah.
Just like every election, PAP still gets to keep their job. So too SMRT... fine them a zillion times... nothing is gonna change... just like every election.
DeleteIts a real joke to impose a 1 million dollar fine on SMRT only to end up for SMRT to apply for fare increase at every opprtunity where revenue cannot generate enough profits for the shareholders which is majority owned by the Govt.
DeleteIs it not as if the Govt is sucking everyone's blood whenever SMRT performs well or make a big blunder of itself?
Looking at the "adverse opinion" in the PA audits, the non-standard calculation of the budget surplus (government says 3.2 b but other sources claim between 10 to 20b) and such huge budget for the PMO office, citizens need to get worried as to where all the money is going. We should demand for more transparency given all the corruption taking place even in the CPIB. Something is not right
ReplyDeleteDPM: Sin taxes in line with social objectives to avoid excessive indulgence or consumption?
ReplyDeleteSo why not tax the wealthier who have heavy indulgence on their 2nd or 3rd COE/cars, houses or swimming pools? Is the govt saying the indulgent consumption of the rich is more acceptable than the ciggies and drinks across the board?
Confirm no noticeable effect on the lives of many
ReplyDeleteTobacco and liquor are bad for health.
ReplyDeleteDrinking can cause riot.
The Taxes for tobacco and liquor must be up 200% and more. Of course to totally ban them will give inhabitants better health and protection.
patriot
Cannot up too much of alcohol. Otherwise, no one will be popping the champagnes when the time comes for celebration..
DeleteUp lah up lah...
DeleteJust create more anti pap peeps...
Please remember the american revolution actually started when the britsh up the tea tax on american tea exports to england...
Mindless self serving + greedy for the sake of greed politcos never ever learn..
LOL
Total ban = zero revenue
DeleteI hope the idiot will up taxes a few thousand % every year so he has more for PMO budget and PA budget to buy his supporters' votes.
Creative accounting at its best. Show lower revenue but higher expenditure in the Budget. End results, guaranteed surplus year after year. Better still, the actual surplus is always better than the budgeted amount.
ReplyDeleteWhy not address the increasing cost in health care? Attacking the root inflation (higher margins? more foreign patience) will truly arrest the expenses. Otherwise, the subsidies are just stop-gap band-aid. Left hand give, right hand take back. In fact, we know all that $8b will go into CPF for more investment again, legally speaking!?!
ReplyDeleteOf course, we know that PAP is master of con job. Subsidy has never benefit anyone except those who implement it.
ReplyDeleteEveryone ask for lower medical cost not subsidy but PAP insist that you to have subsidy instead , and let medical cost go up because you have so-called "subsidy" . Why ? Because they themselves are in business in medical industry, (gov hospital , gov-invested hospitals, pap-related medical business etc). So large portion of public money is going as subsidy to have siphon into these ever-increasing medical cost for the good of the public, which means that it is free money to the gov and PAP as they earning not only from increasing medical cost and also from public money going to subsidise these medical cost. And best of all, only some benefit from the subsidy , and most will be exempted from the subsidy, condition applies. Look at the ShittyTimes where they put headline such as "Everyone benefits" but read the fine print, it says between this old age only, so who is the fu@#ck is Everyone ?
To give you a example, let say a medical cost for the hospital is going to increase by 10% but the gov tell you they going to subsidize by 10%, guess what ? The 10% of public money go to the gov for free this way. It is a way to siphon dumb public into their pocket. And yet they say it is legal and it is for your good.
Did anyone even understand this ? PAP want to eat both side of the cakes, want to perceive as good government while reaping more profit and money from the public, thinking that no daft citizen will understand anyway. But they forget that there is internet to educate the daft.
For example, they say that medical cost is going up for 10% (because they manipulate it, directly and indirectly using dubious law, and policies) and yet they subsidize you with 10%, and in other words, they earning the 10% of public money for free, and for doing nothing.
DeleteHope that people understand how the con job works.
they have been dishing out these type of nonsense all along, and that this how they have so much money .
Don't forget that they keep changing goal posts & create more conditions to deprive us our hard-earned cpf. :(
ReplyDeleteWell, leaders of G20 summit has just pledged to boost economy by $$2.5 trillion over next 5 yrs while creating tens of millions of jobs. Meanwhile, Mr Lim Hng Khiang is negotiating for TPP, as other countries trade and butter over sugar, food, clothes etc, in this 21st century where we produce nothing, what do you think is our "contributions" on this global table? More jobs creation and foreign influx in a safe and clean swiss-like-city state. You can bet that 7m of PWP vision is taking place by 2030 or sooner since they think they have pacify and created happiness with this sweeteners for the PG...Huat ah!!!
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteProduce nothing. Gas & Oil for transhipment.. workers are all foreigners including the management.Marine & Offshore, sama, sama.
Only property is what we "produce". including financial services... again all by foreigners! Most property agents are Malaysian Prs anyway!
The PAP government is running Singapore like a business park.
ReplyDeleteAnd Singaporeans are treated as the lowest class of workers here.
The PAP government is essentially working for LKY and son, and they in turn run Singapore like a famiLee business...whereby Singaporeans are both their tenants and workers.
DeleteDrumstick distributed. Everybody stand-by your chicken!
ReplyDelete"Drumstick distributed. Everybody stand-by your chicken!"
ReplyDeletePlease you are too kind to PAP, the hard truth is
"Drumstick distributed. Everybody stand-by your chicken, pig and duck"
Okay. PAP has given us the drumstick.
DeleteBetter hold onto your money.
They will be coming around to take our chicken very soon.