Unemployed should not get free healthcare: Yahoo! readers
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The idea of a national healthcare fund does not seem to appeal to some Singaporeans, even though this indicates significantly higher subsidies for services. Responding to the recent release of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)’s alternative healthcare plan, Yahoo! Singapore readers took issue with the idea of unemployed citizens enjoying free healthcare, while others felt that the plan was not dealing with the right issues. In its scheme, the SDP proposes that the current ‘3Ms’ system in place — Medisave, MediShield and Medifund — should be removed, with Medisave monies being returned to account holders’ CPF Ordinary Accounts, and in place, implement a national fund that pays for treatment for compulsory basic health, accidents and pregnancy, for Singaporeans and permanent residents here for more than six months in the year. “There should be no social welfare for those who don’t work. This message must be out clear,� said Dennis Lee, who opposed the idea of unemployed Singaporeans getting free healthcare. “Why should I pay taxes and feed people who don’t work?� “What we need now is a good affordable healthcare system for common folks,� said user Pak Geok Choo, who noted that plenty of good work was done during the baby boom by maternity and childcare clinics, with children receiving free vaccinations. “For those who want better or upmarket service, they can opt to go private,� she added. Another user, Darrel Tan, took issue with the notion of the national fund, saying that not all Singaporeans may have to use it even though they are required to contribute to it. “It isn’t fair for us to fork out a sum of money every year where the majority of us won’t be using it,� he wrote, noting also that any benefits or subsidies will be offset by rising healthcare costs as well. “The important thing is to lower the cost (of healthcare here), not how to pay for it,� he said, adding that conditions for Medisave payouts and use could be more flexible in order for more Singaporeans to have access to their saved money. Undergraduate Jason Salim also opposed the scheme, saying that even countries that do apply similar healthcare plans are grappling with their unsustainability. “(The 3M approach) is fiscally sustainable in the long run because it puts little pressure on the public coffers and does not require a large bureaucracy to manage,� wrote Salim, who added that administration of the SDP’s health programme will require tax increases. He pointed out that in Canada, where he is currently based, students like him pay S$80 every month for mandatory state health insurance, and this amount will increase to compensate for rising healthcare costs. “Even then, there is still a shortage of rooms and nurses in addition to long waiting times,� he said. Under the SDP’s scheme, devised over a nine-month period by a panel of 10 healthcare professionals working in both the private and public sectors, the proposed national fund will be used to operate both public and private healthcare institutions, and also cover all healthcare services, apart from an exclusion list that includes dental services, fertility treatment and aesthetic healthcare, said the party. For this, it calls for an increased government contribution of $10.5 billion (about 3.2 per cent of GDP) from its current $4 billion (about 1.4 per cent of GDP), in order to form the majority of the $12 billion spent on healthcare in Singapore in 2010. This, the party says, can be funded by cuts in defence spending, the introduction of a luxury tax and property sales taxes for foreigners, and the increment of corporate tax rates by between 1 and 2 per cent. Singaporeans will be required to contribute to the fund, paying between $300 and $600 annually from their CPF or bank accounts. PRs will pay a slightly higher amount, between $400 and $700, while the financially needy will receive further assistance, with some receiving complete subsidy from the government. Residents who contribute to the healthcare scheme will receive a 90 per cent subsidy for healthcare services, except for primary and secondary care illnesses. Its measure to avoid abuse or over-consumption of treatment: a 10 per cent co-payment fee for services, up to a maximum of $2,000 per year. Noting that under the current healthcare system, patients owed the government some $110 million in hospital fees at the end of last year, the SDP said its new scheme will make healthcare significantly more affordable for lower-income groups and eliminate hospitalisation debt, because the poor and unemployed will be subsidised in full for treatment. Its scheme also eliminates ward classes in hospitals, which the party says currently determines waiting time for operations and the standard of treatment administered to patients. ====== will there ever be a system that suits everyone?
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Hard to find a system to suit everyone...
b4 u find a system to suit everyone, u have to please everyone...
and there will always be ppl opposing your ideas for the sake of opposing your ideas, so no matter how well ur ideas are, they wont accept it...
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As long as singapore don't do the stupid pension thing like ang mor countries can already.
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
Hard to find a system to suit everyone...
b4 u find a system to suit everyone, u have to please everyone...
and there will always be ppl opposing your ideas for the sake of opposing your ideas, so no matter how well ur ideas are, they wont accept it...
Absolutely! -
Originally posted by ditzy:
As long as singapore don't do the stupid pension thing like ang mor countries can already.
Actually, can't really say it's stupid... it's just the nature of people to take advantage or abuse the system to their own benefit.In an ideal world, everyone is honorable type, they will do their best to work and resolve their own money/medical fees/problems etc... and those who genuinely can't find work despite their best efforts, or genuinely in situations where they need help, I think they should receive it. I think in an ideal world, communism works best because everyone works for each other. But sadly, our planet is not one where humans are like that... many are selfish who only thinks for themselves. =(
And that's why capitalism is more suited to the selfish humans lifestyle. =(
Very sad. I want to faster go heaven. I already done everything I want to do on Earth, now just waiting for my time.
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They should take aim at the cheaper, better & faster foreign trash that are snatching our jobs to begin with. Some of the unemployed citizens were victims of these bastards.
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some unemployed can be seriouly sick, too old to work or without family support, i hope one day Dennis Lee will fall into one of these category. -
right wing agenda creeping into Singapore politics. hmmm....
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I pity the handicapped and the infirmed.
Means no healthcare for them.
Like Bernard Shaw said, you must justify your existence by economic productivity, if you not productive, you should be killed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93eir00rOho
With these kind of forethought we are not far from Hitler.
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wow, seems like still got some compassionate human beings in singapore... i find it hard to justify letting people die simply because they are too poor to live. but still got people insist you poor must die, that's their mindset and beliefs, hard to change.
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Originally posted by FunGuyWorkaholic:
wow, seems like still got some compassionate human beings in singapore... i find it hard to justify letting people die simply because they are too poor to live. but still got people insist you poor must die, that's their mindset and beliefs, hard to change.
Like they say, in Singapore you can afford to die but cannot afford to fall ill. All this while KBW gets an $8 heart bypass. -
Make buying insurance compulsory for all.
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Originally posted by TooFree:
Make buying insurance compulsory for all.
Please think about what you said again. Not everyone who is working can afford to buy insurance.