Medishield-life: yet another prefunded Ponzi Scheme???!!!!!
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Prefunding Risks Medishield-life Degenerating into a Bankrupt-Ponzi-Scheme of unendin
Mr Tan KL's concerns are prescient: Prefunding Risks Medishield-life Degenerating into a Bankrupt-Ponzi-Scheme of unending premium increases if it is designed after a one-incident-only-claim 'whole life' insurance policy/scheme.
Mr Tan Kin Lian wrote Pre-funding not feasible for MediShield Life:
Already, the element of prefunding exists in the form of medisave, whereby individuals involuntarily contribute to a medical savings account with extremely limited usage options unless they have proven terminal illness conditions of extremely short life-expectancy: e.g. strict claim limits, limits based upon claim type/ treatment incident: e.g. in-patient vs out-patient, claim per chemotherapy treatment; ban on claims for cosmetic treatments, acute illnesses(cough n colds etc) etc.Quote:The Straits Times; Published on Nov 25, 2013
Pre-funding not feasible for MediShield Life
CURRENTLY, MediShield requires an annual premium that varies according to age. Younger people pay a lower premium, while older people pay a higher sum.
The Government is now planning to introduce MediShield Life, which covers people for life.
There has been some discussion about pre-funding for MediShield Life ("Problems with pre-funding" by Mr David Boey, last Tuesday; "Merits of pre-funding" by Ms Maria Loh Mun Foong; last Thursday; and "Caring for the old should be the norm" by Mr Geoffrey Kung; Forum Online, last Thursday).
The aim is for the insured person to pay a level premium to cover him for life. This is akin to a life insurance policy.
In both cases, the claim rate is lower for younger people and higher for older people. Pre-funding allows a person to pay a level premium that is deemed by an actuary to be sufficient for his lifetime.
There is, however, one key difference that makes pre-funding not feasible for MediShield Life.
In a whole-life policy, the sum assured is fixed for the duration of the contract.
For medical insurance, the cost of treatment is expected to rise over the years due to inflation. Also, the cost depends on the choice of hospital and specialists, and can vary significantly from one claim to another.
Some countries have adopted measures to make medical treatment more affordable for older people through cross-subsidies and supported by general taxation. They do not try to achieve this goal by using pre-funding under individual contracts.
Tan Kin Lian
Copyright © 2014 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
Pre-funding not feasible for MediShield Life
Compared to whole life insurance (insurance on life or the occurrence of a terminal illness), insurance covering medical treatment is a whole lot more complex if not unpredictable with the possibility of involving unlimited claim incidences depending on the onset, severity and permanence of the medical condition (e.g. kidney dialysis which last lifetime). Life insurance on the other hand is one of the simplest forms of insurance, contractually involving ONLY ONE POSSIBLE CLAIM: I.e. a FIXED, PRE-AGREED lump sum benefit payable upon a terminal event/incident (death or terminal, incurable illness); henforth after the claim, the life-insurance policy/contract is ceased (payee is either terminally ill but 'paid', or else dead in sudden accident (estate gets paid): the sum assured is FIXED (or equals the total amount of accrued principle including bonus eqrned over years if the policy value exceeds the guaranteed death/ terminal illness payout sum.)
In medical insurance however, the total payout sum is IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT due to advances in medical technology, medical costs inflation, lifespan of the individual, quality of care expected, frequency of hospitalisation, availability of domestic help (some people cannot be discharged because care givers not free/ 'busy' etc):
Just like NHS in the UK/ USA national pension schemes, bankruptcy awaits due to an excessive claims to premiums record: with even government support doing little to improve finances when claims eventually far outpace all premiums paid.
Medishield-life sows the seeds of failed promises. There is no free lunch in this world; no solution to an unhealthy lifestyle (diabetes, smoking, obesity etc). Where preventive healthcare fails, no insurance scheme can restore the loss without the high risk of bankruptcy or extremely high running costs.
Prefunding already exists in the claims restricted nature of the CPF medisave account. If gahmen focuses on healthy lifestyle/ preventive healrthcare amongst all, boosts up medifund to fund the medical cost of the needy only, then there is reduced need to prefund the moral hazard of what is basically a fools errand to manage (prefunded Medishield-life premiums), and thus reduce the risk of medishield/ worse: compulsory Medishield-life eventually succumbing to become another bankrupt/exposed ponzi scheme.
Senior generation Singaporeans should also not ill forget the words of Lee Kuan Yew as they marvel at his son's mathematical acrobatics as he "derails the idea of having individual accounts for CPF and Medisave.":
The seeds of destruction are being sown, young Singaporeans should prepare themselves for some rather lean years ahead as with the indiscriminate forced collection of prefunded Medishield-life premiums on top of a prefunded CPF Medisave scheme, moral hazard is greatly increased....Quote:Lee Kuan Yew:
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.
So if Low Thia Khiang says now, let’s set up a common pool, I think he’ll lose votes in the next election. 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
Source: Are Singaporeans being set up for disappointment? | Insights Health Associates__________________ -
No surprise. Most of what they do for citizens are mainly not or very little benefits pto citizens. They always make themselves the winner.
Vote them out.
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What happened to cheaper better faster?
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Originally posted by charlize:
What happened to cheaper better faster?
They found a " cheaper better faster" way to raise funds from Sinkie's by hijacking the one-incident-only structure of whole-life insurance structure to justify the prefunding of Medishield-life which is obviously MUCH MORE COMPPICATED an insurance scheme as compared to whole life insurance (only one claim per life opportunity: either death or impending death etc).
Will probably win them GE2016 (as usual), but is indeed just kicking the can down the road since soonest enough, either Medishield-life will go bankrupt or else premiums must rise (even for those who earliest contributed by "prefunding" Medishield-life.
Without a healthy lifestyle, no insurance plan, prefunded or otherwise, can guarantee a good life...
Worse if prefunded and then later either have premiums rise/ go bankrupt: only adds to the extra heart ache...
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They will not intro things that they don't earn. Their insatiable greed for money cause true blue citizens their happiness. The longer the "LEEd" this country the more they destroy.
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Healthy lifestyle choice: the main insurance against bankruptcy of Medishield-life and unaffordable healthcare costs.
I didn't say cut medical care funding overnight, but that gahmen should sponsor more research into preventive health: e.g. effect of healthy-lifestyle on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, obesity, diabetes etc. If smoking is bad, than just tell 'world tobacco Asia' conference organisers that they are not welcomed here, rather than welcome them to Marina Bay Sands in Nov to have their big tobacco extravaganza.(see letter below).Quote:Originally Posted by cancer81Fr Thread (HWZ): Prefunding risk Medishield-life degenerating into a Bankrupt Ponzi Scheme.
even do IPPT (which has a side effect of making sure people keep themselves healthy) is not a easy thing to accept...
gahment cutting funding on medical care and preaching (literally) to people to live more healthy live (eat less oily, salty, sweet and exercise more) is going to lose PAP votes:s22:
Ultimately, PAP gahmen is trying to con medisave$$$ out of Sinkie's by using 'pre-funding' concept which is obviously misplaced because healthcare costs CAN ONLY GO UP and unlike whole life insurance, claims are not limited to a fixed one-time payout amount of $XXX(+ some bonus for those who lived long and paid premiums for whole life insurance policy all along)[Ref: TKL/ST: Pre-funding not feasible for MediShield Life]. Ultimately, Sinkie's will find themselves conned by this prefunding scam theory (even LKY was against excessive socialism in healthcare costs (he introduced medisave for that reason: to keep costs individualised): let alone this prefunding excuse to collect high premiums from younger generation). The younger generation today will soon enough SMELL A RAT and therefore, I believe that with Medishield-life (prefunding), the PAP are digging their own political graves and it wouldn't be too soon before the PAP loses its right to govern as the young of today declare PAP incompetent (e.g. if Medishield-life goes bankrupt DESPITE collecting double premiums from young members to promise much lower/ discounted premiums when they are old).
Robbing Peter to pay Paul only serves to destroy any credibility PAP has that the LKY era earned them...
Making Singapore the HQ of tobacco promotion/ distribution to the world...
Then again, with self-serving/ corrupt politicians of the following sort, one does not expect too much.Quote:The Straits Times, Published on May 26, 2014
Tobacco fair contradicts anti-smoking efforts
WORLD No Tobacco Day is coming up on May 31, but there is little reason for cheer.
One of the largest trade fairs in the tobacco industry, the World Tobacco Asia 2014, is set to take place in Singapore in November, after being rejected by Indonesia.
As a party to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Singapore is required to meet its obligations under Article 13 of the FCTC.
The WHO states that a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship should cover:
- All advertising and promotion, as well as sponsorship, without exception;
- Acts that aim at promotion and acts that have, or are likely to have, a promotional effect;
- Promotion of tobacco products and the use of tobacco;
- Commercial communications and commercial recommendations and actions;
- Advertising and promotion of tobacco brand names and all corporate promotion.
Holding the fair would result in Singapore contravening the above obligations under Article 13.
After successfully hosting the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in 2012 and pledging to reduce smoking prevalence to below 10 per cent by 2020, staging the tobacco industry's trade show here would be absurd.
The fair is not a closed-door event accessible exclusively to industry players. Members of the public would inadvertently be exposed to otherwise banned tobacco advertising.
How can the Health Sciences Authority ensure that tobacco products which are prohibited in Singapore would not be imported, promoted and given out as samples at the fair?
How can the authorities prevent such illegal products from being surreptitiously sold here after the trade show ends?
The Government must remain resolute in its stand against tobacco and protect Singaporeans from all forms of tobacco promotion without exception.
Liu I-Chun (Ms)
Copyright © 2014 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
Tobacco fair contradicts anti-smoking efforts
- 'fixing the opposition':Quote:"If the annual salary of the Minister of Information, Communication and Arts is only $500,000, it may pose some problems when he discuss policies with media CEOs who earn millions of dollars because they need not listen to the minister's ideas and proposals. Hence, a reasonable payout will help to maintain a bit of dignity." 
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I can assure you that this is not the last of the Ponzi schemes.
When the total population in Sinkapore reaches 8+ million in 2030, there will be more opportunities for the elite class to make money out of poor Sinkies.
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Originally posted by pinkcolor:
I can assure you that this is not the last of the Ponzi schemes.
When the total population in Sinkapore reaches 8+ million in 2030, there will be more opportunities for the elite class to make money out of poor Sinkies.
I concur. Before 2030 just get them out. Situation is such "bu shi ni si jiu shi wo wang".
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Originally posted by pinkcolor:
I can assure you that this is not the last of the Ponzi schemes.
When the total population in Sinkapore reaches 8+ million in 2030, there will be more opportunities for the elite class to make money out of poor Sinkies.
Fact that Singapore is justifying introducing more foreigners as citizens is proof that the Singapore gahmen did not plan for an aging population:
Healthy lifestyle campaigns: none significant: so many $inkies are diabetic/ full of chronic disease that they need Medishield-life: a prefunded ponzi like scheme to subsidise.
Enough savings and affordable cost of living: NONE since they let the property price go out of hand (and further still with subsidies for asset-rich folks(Medishield-life subsidies for asset rich folks)): which means forever escalating costs of living: a massive problem for retirees etc.
Many gahmen policies are ponzi in nature, it is just that the people don't notice mostly because other country gahmen also run similar/ worse ponzi schemes.
Many of these ponzi schemes result in war: local or otherwise, and then the cycle continues under one dictator or another...
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2016 coming
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