Petition updateExempt Overseas Singaporeans from Medishield Life Premiums.MP Sylvia Lim to Raise Questions on ML for Overseas Singaporeans
Juliet LowLondon, ENG, United Kingdom
Jan 15, 2016 — From: Juliet Low Date: Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 11:07 AM Subject: [Overseas Singaporeans] Request for Exemption on Medishield Life To: Sylvia Lim Dear Ms Sylvia Lim, Thank you for meeting me on Monday 4 January 2015. We spoke about exemptions to Medishield Life for relevant Overseas Singaporeans. It was a pleasure speaking with you and I’m glad that you have agreed to raise this at the next Parliamentary Debate. The petition page is listed at https://www.change.org/p/the-singapore-government-ministry-of-health-singapore-central-provident-fund-singapore-exempt-overseas-singaporeans-from-medishield-life-premiums-8ba456c6-2830-4b2c-af65-b3a5d87c505e The email exchange between myself and MOH is listed at https://medishieldlife.wordpress.com/ (The oldest post starts from the bottom of the page) In summary, I would like to highlight the following points:- 1. [WE ARE NOT THAT RICH THAT WE CAN AFFORD TO BE WASTEFUL] There is a myth that overseas Singaporeans are affluent. However, increasingly, we have Singaporeans, who have married foreign spouses and forced to live abroad, being unable to obtain a working visa in Singapore for their other half. We also see the emergence of Singaporeans who are unable to afford the high standard of living here, or who have been unable to get relevant jobs, who are forced to move to cheaper countries or those with more relevant opportunities. There are also Singaporeans like myself, with pre-existing conditions and unable to afford extremely high monthly healthcare expenses, who had to move to countries with a state healthcare service or a country with no exclusions to a national health insurance. After considering the payment of rent, high taxes and childcare costs, these overseas Singaporeans do not have the luxury of paying for something they do not need or use like Medishield Life. There is no affordability subsidies for overseas Singaporeans. Most of them have never worked in Singapore and do not have CPF. They have to front cash in full, or risk being arrested. 2. [FRAGMENTED POLICIES ON HEALTHCARE COSTS IS CAUSING EXCESSIVE DUPLICATION] The fragmentation and duplication of healthcare payments is a serious issue in Singapore. We have company health insurance, private healthcare insurance, national Medishield Life, Medisave, and governmental medical subsidies. Many of these overlaps each other in terms of coverage. It’s not uncommon to find Singaporeans with multiple BASIC coverage when the total premiums that they pay could have given them PREMIUM coverage. How much do we spend so much on dead weight costs trying to administer so many schemes and policies? In the USA, COBRA law permits an individual leaving his company to continue on the company’s health plan for a year until he is able to find his next job and obtain new healthcare insurance. Because of the lack of this law, Singaporeans have to ensure the continuity of health care coverage by purchasing private insurance on top of their corporate ones. Now overseas Singaporeans with healthcare coverage are also being forced to pay for duplicate care in Singapore which they will never use. 3. [EXCESSIVE DEAD WEIGHT COSTS ON ADMINISTRATION] Why can’t we minimize the total amount of administration by establishing a national healthcare sinking fund that everybody equally contributes to? We can collectively decrease the total fund that we need to collect but yet achieve the same goals. We wouldn’t need to administer for who is how old and who has pre-existing conditions, and we can honestly direct every cent towards further subsidies upon hospitalization or a diagnosis of a chronic illness. What is the purpose of spending administration returning GST Vouchers and Rebates? Why do we collect, then give back and then collect again? There is so much dead weight costs currently. 4. [TOTAL COVER FOR ML IS EMBARASSINGLY POOR WITH NO CEILING FOR MAX PAYMENT] For the amount that ML collects, it is embarrassing how much is really covered. It does not meet the basic objective of an insurance. Imagine buying a car insurance that only covered the first $5,000 of your damages. What if you hit someone and caused him a lifetime of disability? The potential liability could go into the millions and yet the car insurance does nothing. That is precisely the problem with healthcare insurance in Singapore now. Please see this recent article http://theindependent.sg/medishield-life-only-paid-300-of-a-5k-bill-and-no-subsidies-for-900-medicine/ 5. [MOST OF OUR OVERSEAS HEALTHCARE SIGNIFICANTLY COVERS MORE THAN ML.] We don’t live in Singapore. We won’t end up using hospitalization benefits here. When we travel home to see our family, we have travel insurance that still covers more than ML. It is not a practical cover for us at all. The ML Capital-Asset-Ratio (CAR) was pegged at 200% instead of the industry standard of 120%. MOH can cut the overseas Singaporeans some slack. We pay so much to live overseas to a point where we truly cannot afford to be wasteful. Our objectives are as follows:- 1. [OPT OUT FOR A REASONABLE ADMIN FEE] We are seeking an opt-out for overseas Singaporeans able to prove that they have adequate healthcare cover and are able to prove that they have been away and will continue to be away for a certain number of years. We are willing to pay an admin fee for opt-in and opt-out to avoid burdening the system. I do not think this request is unreasonable at all. 2. [FURTHER ACCOUNTABILITY] The ministry is meant to serve the people, us. We expect some professionalism from MOH to at least respond effectively and directly, rather than send us in circles with this “national duty” that they claim is the core of ML. Insurance has nothing to do with national duty. Until today, I have not been able to return to Singapore without being severely out-of-pocket for my medical expenses. None of my medicines are subsidized or are claimable under ML. In fact, my medical device that cost $7,000 was tax on GST. In the UK, these are all provided free of charge to me, in exchange for taxes which is a percentage of my earnings and hence is affordable to me. In Singapore, I will never be able to earn enough to cover my medical costs. I have literally been forced out of my own country away from my family in order to survive. Where is MOH’s national duty towards me? Thank you so much again for your attention to this matter. Please let me know if you have further questions and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I depart from Singapore on Jan 13, 2016. Email will be our best form of communication going forward. We look forward to your reply soon. Again, thank you for your kind assistance. Yours Faithfully, Juliet Low. ----------------------------------------- REPLY BY MP SYLVIA LIM ----------------------------------------- From: Sylvia Lim Date: Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 3:05 AM Subject: Re: [Overseas Singaporeans] Request for Exemption on Medishield Life To: Juliet Low Dear Juliet Thanks very much for coming by to see me last week. It was enlightening to hear the details of how MediShield Life is not meaningful and can cause hardship to many overseas Singaporeans. During our meeting, I mentioned that I would look into this issue more closely, to see how I could raise it in Parliament. It may not be at the next sitting, but at a subsequent sitting. We are looking into Medishield Life in general, as there has been much feedback also about its very limited coverage etc. We will get back to you if we need more clarifications. Meanwhile, should you have more information to share, pls do. May you have a happy and peaceful 2016. Best, Sylvia
Copy link
WhatsApp
Facebook
Nextdoor
Email
X