Shocking! Taken from Melvin Tan's blog
http://melvintansg.blogspot.com/:
09 August 2007
Care versus cost - lopsided?
Yesterday, a day before the National Day holiday, I had some drinks
with a couple of friends.
One of them, presently sourcing for a nursing home to place his
semi-mobile father in, learnt that the costs of doing so could run
up to more than $2,000 per month and lamented the high fees charged
by such homes.
Only in the event where a family has an average income of $1,000
and below per member, the government will subsidise 80% of the
costs.
To me, it odd to expect a family with an average income of, say,
$1,100 per member, to fork out expenses of about $2,000 per month
if they had to opt for the assistance of a nursing home.
Having to deal with expenses that outstrip their earnings is an
impossible feat for any family even if they could do the impossible
of not spending a single cent of their income.
In my view, the income ceiling to qualify for this subsidy should
be at least $3,000 or more instead of $1,000.
My friend and his other siblings had no problem with the costs but
he wondered about the plight of less well-off families who, if
under inevitable circumstances like his own, have to put a family
member in a nursing home as last resort.
For their case, it is not their desire to leave their father in a
home but they do not have much of a choice as their mother is also
semi-mobile and they were worried their maid will be unable to
handle both.
How will poorer families under the same situation, except being
unable to afford a maid or hospice costs, cope?
Another topic discussed was means testing, a policy idea introduced
by the PAP (with several u-turns on the implementation deadline)
that the Workers' Party was concerned with and became one of the
mentioned topics during the General Election in 2006.
We wondered why government hospitals had to institute means testing
when they can maintain C Class wards while reducing or abolishing A
and B Class wards, leaving it to the private hospitals to run the
latter classes of wards?
The two reasons we could think of is, firstly, to give the world
the perception that Singaporeans are generally well-off for the
government to have high-class hospitals and secondly, the usual
engrossment with surplus at the people's expense.
Today, on Singapore's 42nd birthday, let us reflect on the society
the country will have in the near and distant future.
A new video by activist-filmmaker Martyn See lends a lesser-seen
insight.
