Singapore:
Medishield-life= terminal life support for a BANKRUPT healthcare
system?
As admitted by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong: “If
you look around, our investments in health promotion
and diseases prevention, I think... it
is actually significantly lower than the amount of
money we spend on treating diseases... ... .. We need to
take a holistic approach towards health promotion, taking into
account how can we empower consumers so that they make the right
choice” ['Empower
consumers with holistic approach to healthcare: Gan Kim Yong',
TODAY, 11 Feb,2015]
The consequence of
lifestyle/ preventive healthcare lapse: dire
statistics:
- "Singapore
has the second-highest proportion
of diabetics among developed nations, a
new report by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
revealed...10.53 per cent of people in Singapore...Only the United
States fared worse..."['Singapore
'has 2nd-highest proportion of diabetics''; ST, 2nd
Dec2015]
- "Last
year (2014), about 1,730 people lost the use of their kidneys, up
from 1,657 in 2013,... The reason? Singaporeans are getting more
obese and more are suffering from diabetes, the main
cause of kidney failure when not kept in
check." ['A
new dialysis patient every 5 hours in S'pore', ST,
10May2015]
The public healthcare
costs of this lapse:
- "The Government's
expenditure on health care has almost doubled in just
three short years - from $4 billion in FY2011 to $7.5 billion in
FY2014.... In Budget 2012, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam
projected that health expenditure would hit $8 billion in five
years. Today, it is almost there - much faster than projected.
" ['Change
mindset to curb rising health-care costs in Singapore'; ST, 18Mar
2014]
From the a/m figures, back of envelope calculation would reveal
that between 2011 and 2014, the increase in public healthcare costs
('gahmen expenditure') was $7.5B/$4B= 1.875x. So assuming that the
budget has to increase at 1.875x every 3 yrs,
then by
2017, the annual expenditure should be $7.5B x 1.875 = $14.06
billion (almost
double of Minister Tharman's S$8B projection and frightening
considering that Singapore's GDP is around $300B
).
According to a/m chart 'Healthcare financing 2011-2013' found
at '20150516
PAP’s Medishield Life – taking care of our healthcare by taking
from our Medisave?',
the total
balance of all medisave accounts in 2013 was
S$64.9B.
It is thus not unreasonable to suspect that the
real reason for the construct of
medishield-life would
be to obfuscate (and financially compensate for) the gahmen's
(expensive) lapse in preventive healthcare policy provisions, and
to prevent such negligence from revealing itself either in the form
of a gahmen budget deficit or runaway public healthcare
costs.
And so desperate
is MOH for
$$$/ at avoiding this possibility that they have held Singaporean's
personal liberty hostage by making non-payment of medishield-life
premiums a jailable
offence:"Singaporeans
or permanent residents (PRs) who refuse to pay MediShield Life
premiums once the universal health insurance scheme is launched
later this year could find themselves behind bars if they try to
leave the country... .. payment of the outstanding premium to an
immigration officer or the police. .. also have to pay a 17 per
cent penalty for late payment, as well as any costs incurred in
recovering the money." ['MediShield
Life: Can pay but won't? Jail, fine on the cards'; MyPaper,
21Jan2015]
The significance of prodigal
MOH contradicting founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew by
raiding private medisave accounts on the year of his
demise is
not lost on those who suspect that MOH will be the Ministry to
bankrupt Singapore, and return us to the state we were at SG:zero
(SG:0),
May we not forget our founder's words that MOH has since
unceremoniously disparaged since the onset of compulsory premium
payments in Nov2015:
"My major objective in the early days was to make sure that
nobody derails the idea of having individual accounts for CPF and
Medisave. Whatever you earn, it’s yours.Because once you
have that individual account, any suggestion that you put it into a
common pool and everybody takes out from it (as with other welfare
systems) is bound to lose you votes. ...Are you prepared to put
your money into a common pool, having slogged and built up your CPF
nest egg? It’s yours and if you don’t use it, you can leave it to
your children or your relatives or whoever you
like. Why should you put it into a common pool and
everybody draws out at your expense, which is what’s happening in
some Western countries? The system has
collapsed." ~
From Lee
Kuan Yew :
Hard truths to keep Singapore going. (Eds Han FK, Z Ibrahim, Chua
MH, L Lim, I Low, R Lin, R Chan) Straits Times Press 2011
(pg.170)"
The advice from ['Change
mindset to curb rising health-care costs in Singapore'; ST, 18Mar
2014]"Bad
habits like smoking, binge drinking, sedentary lifestyles, and high
sugar and fat consumption are still rampant.
The Ministry of Health is not unaware of this.
The Health Promotion Board was set up to tackle just this
problem.
Unfortunately, progress is slow, while poor health will snowball as
the population ages with little regard to staying fit.
It would be better if a larger part of health expenditure is spent
on prevention rather than treatment, too.
Another shift that is needed is a move towards better and stronger
primary and community care, so that chronic diseases can be kept
under control and not result in ever-worsening health.
And if those two conditions are to be met, a huge mindset change is
needed, as a healthy society means people in their 60s and 70s can
remain active contributors.
Then perhaps the increase in health-care spending will not spiral
out of control."
Yet it seems that the MOH's sole solution to the problem is to
raid private medisave
accounts and jail all who do not pay to MOH their dues...
Congratulations MOH, U are well versed in the leadership dictates
of the DPRK: i.e. North Korea.
Reference:
- "As we shift “left-of-center”, let’s not overcompensate
and lose
everything that made Singapore what it is
today.":
['ARE
SINGAPOREANS BEING SET UP FOR DISAPPOINTMENT?',
InsightsHealthAssociates; 13Aug2013]
- Health alert: One
in 3 will develop diabetes (The
Straits Times, 24February2012, Pg B01)
Source:
Health alert: One in 3 will develop diabetes [Link
1 (SGH)], [Link
2]
- “Healthy
Lifestyle May Prevent 86% Of Heart Attacks...
'This reduction in risk corresponded to 18% for the healthy diet,
11% for moderate alcohol consumption, 36% for no smoking, 3% for
being physically active, and 12% for having a low abdominal
circumference,' the authors wrote': [Åkesson,
A et al “Low-risk diet and lifestyle habits in the primary
prevention of myocardial infarction in Men” J Am Coll Cardiol 2014;
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2014.06.1190.]
Disclaimer: not professional statistician, some non-official
sources for statistics used.