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Richard Seah –
If you are seriously ill and have a limited time to live, and
you have $30,500 worth of savings, how would you like best to spend
that money? Hands up those who would spend it in a hospital.
Anybody?
In the debate about Medisave, some people on this forum have
called it a scam. But many people do feel it is both necessary and
desirable to set aside money for medical expenses. I remember a few
years ago, one newspaper editorial stated that arguing against the
merits of Medisave “is a waste of time”. At the risk of wasting
both my time and yours, I ask that you reconsider this basic
premise.
First, is it necessary? Not if you accept the fact – and this is
increasingly confirmed by medical research – that the majority of
illnesses can be prevented. If you take good care of your health,
your arteries will not get clogged up, your liver, pancreas,
kidneys and other organs will not break down and your immune system
will conquer most bacteria, viruses and even cancer cells.
What if you don’t take care? Well, if you have a heart attack or
a stroke, there is a good chance that you will die suddenly. So
there is again no need for medical expenses.
If you develop diabetes, your Medisave fund won’t cover your
daily jabs of insulin. The money will come in handy if you need to
amputate your leg, but again, not after that when you need to
engage a maid to help you move around.
Of course, there will be some people who might find their
Medisave money useful, such as those who require heart bypass,
stent insertion and similar surgery. But hey! The same procedures
can be done in Malaysia or Thailand for a fraction of the cost,
even after factoring in travel expenses.
Using Medisave to have them done in Singapore then becomes like
buying expensive items from a department store when those same
items are on sale cheaply everywhere else. You do it only because
you have a gift voucher that cannot be redeemed elsewhere. But
Medisave is not a “gift”. It’s your savings!
It was only recently that this “voucher” can be redeemed – and
only partially in any case – at some Malaysian branches of the same
medical “department store”. If you prefer (or happen to be in)
Thailand, Philippines or some other country, sorry, you pay cash…
while your Medisave idles away back home, waiting to follow you to
your grave.
About the only significant group of people who might find
Medisave “necessary” are those who spend the final months in and
out of hospitals, fighting one medical battle after another. If you
belong to this group, you would do well to ask yourself – and your
children and siblings, who might be using their Medisave money plus
lots more cash since Medisave won’t be enough: Is this
desirable?
One person who found a more desirable way to use his money was
the American journalist Norman Cousins, who was diagnosed with a
so-called “incurable” illness. Instead of feeling miserable in a
hospital, he decided to check into a hotel. After all, it cost less
money. He felt better right away. The service and the food were far
superior and there were no nurses to wake him up in the middle of
the night to ask him to take his medicines.
(As an aside, I still remember when I was in hospital some 35
years ago. I was woken up one night by a nurse asking me to take my
sleeping pills! Yes, they do stupid things like this. “It’s the
policy,” the nurse had explained to me.)
To entertain himself, Cousins rented funny movies. This was in
the 1960s, before video, VCD and DVD, when movies came as film and
projector. Cousins spent his days watching Groucho Marx movies and
literally laughed himself to recovery – and became famous for
writing about his experiences in Anatomy of an
Illness,
Hugh Faulkner, author of Physician Heal Thyself, was a
British medical doctor who was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic
cancer when he was in his mid-70s. Despite being a medical doctor,
he sought alternative treatment through a macrobiotic diet.
Faulkner wrote in his book that just before the Christmas after
his diagnosis, he drew up a list of “presents” that he had always
wanted – either to have or to do. It was a long list. Among other
things, he bought a computer and learned to play a musical
instrument. These contributed as much to his recovery as his change
of diet. He led an active, healthy and fulfilling life for about
another seven years, even though the original prognosis was just
six to nine months. I had the privilege of meeting this brave man –
it takes courage for a medical doctor to seek alternative medical
treatment – when I attended the Macrobiotic Summer Camp back in
1993.
Recovery is never guaranteed, of course. What is guaranteed is
that you will feel much happier spending your final $30,500 on the
things that you’ve always wanted, than on drugs and chemotherapy
that cause you to lose your appetite, your hair… and your will to
live!
———-
*The views expressed in this article are the writer’s and do
not represent that of The Online Citizen.