Singapore government revamped Medishield
On 10 Oct 2012, I wrote an article on “The state of healthcare in Singapore” and criticized the limitations of 3M (Medisave, Medishield and Medifund). Two days after my blog posting was published, the Singapore government immediately announced changes in the Medishield, our national healthcare insurance. Among the changes included the coverage and claim limits for policyholders.
Readers might call it pure coincidence. After all, the changes would take effect only in March next year, even though it was announced two days after my blog posting. I would like to think so but more importantly, the response validates my concerns of the state of healthcare in Singapore. In my previous posting, I had criticized Medishield’s fine print of “SGD50,000 maximum claim per policy year”. The government noted that and stated that they would increase the cap to SGD70,000 next year.
Some readers may argue that enhancement is incremental only but I feel that at least the government is moving in the right direction. In fact, the announced changes in the Medishield only served to reinforce my argument that it is time for our national insurance policy to be enhanced. Going forward, I feel that the next step should be to relax the ruling on the use of Medisave and also to review the eligibility requirements of Medifund.
Some of my readers had commented in my previous posting that it is unreasonable of me to request government to intervene on healthcare yet at the same time expect the government to adopt a “hands-off approach” on potential investment scams. Well first of all, I respect all my readers’ views but ultimately they have to understand the fundamentals of issues discussed in this blog. Unlike personal investments, the government have the obligation and duty to provide affordable healthcare to citizens.
We all grow old one day and having contributed actively to the nation when we are young, it is only right the government take care of us when we are old and sick. However on the other hand, personal investments are based on “willing sellers, willing buyers” contractual obligations. It is not feasible for our government to have a fool-proof policies to protect citizens from potential investment scams.
I believe there are many wealth builders who lost monies to email scams. I read them all the time in the newspaper. So the best way to prevent yourselves from being conned is to educate yourself and raise awareness among our community. Silence and ignorant are not the best policies. Stop being arrogant and stupid. Join me and follow my blog. Help to spread the words among your friends and colleagues. Educate them and prevent them from being conned.
Join me in my investment journey and read my financial adventures for free! Through the sharing, my vision is to improve and change people’s lives. In school, we don’t learn how to budget, manage our finances, build wealth and invest our money. Instead, we are taught useless subjects which we would never put to use most of the times during our working lives.
Yet, managing our money is an important life skill that is critical to our survival in the society. Many people start to realize how it is importance of managing money only when they face the prospect of financial ruins, by then which would be too late for remedies. Thus, I started this blog to share articles on finances which I aspire to make a positive impact in others’ lives.
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Magically yours,
SG Wealth Builder
