TR EMERITUS

Writers at the 7th annual Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Association Conference stood up to show their support against NLB's recent decision to remove and pulp books. (Photo TODAY) This morning (17 Jul), at the 7th annual Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Association Conference held at The Arts House, Singaporean writer Suchen Christine Lim spoke out against NLB's recent decision to withdraw and pulp three children’s titles deemed as "not pro-family". The 3 titles involved were: And Tango Makes Three The White Swan Express Who’s In My Family? The literary conference was attended by some 100 local and international writers. Ms Lim began her keynote address at conference by asking those present to stand and "send good energy and best wishes to all the children in Singapore whose families do not fit into the official mould of 'one man, one woman and their children'". The audience jumped to their feet and gave a rousing cheer to Ms Lim. Ms Lim told the audience that NLB's action disregarded the feelings of single parent and other alternative families like hers and her friends. She was a single parent to her two sons and was also brought up in a single parent family for a time before her mother remarried. She was saddened that “certain groups” were imposing a one-size fits all family-size on society and added that she is hurt “for the thousands of children who do not fit into the one-man, one-woman” family structure. "In removing and pulping those books on various family structures, the National Library Board is telling these children that they and their families don't count. In removing these books, NLB is reducing such children and their families into invisibility," she said. She said that no public institution should destroy books, especially on family, without discussion. She told the audience that she was “dismayed, disappointed and angry beyond words”. Other prominent local writers present in the audience included Verena Tay and Josephine Chia. Also present was writer Felix Cheong, who together with fellow writers Gwee Li Sui, Adrian Tan and Prem Anand, withdrew from an NLB panel discussion last week. They too were protesting against NLB's ill-conceived decision to withdraw and pulp the 3 children books. Mr Cheong deliberately wore a brand-new T-shirt with a picture of 3 penguins to the conference. The penguin picture was adapted from one of the banned books, 'And Tango Makes Three'. It has now been used as a logo by those against NLB's decision. The conference was organised by the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Association in collaboration with The Arts House and the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS). It is held from 17 to 19 July, 2014. The association is an international networking organization that seeks to build and promote the careers of authors in Asia internationally.    Read More →

Existing MediShield Policyholders People with pre-existing medical conditions will pay a loading of up to 30 per cent for ten years; thereafter, they will not be subject to any loading. However, this loading is hardly enough to cover the significant cost of insuring them. Existing MediShield policyholders, many of whom bought MediShield coverage for no other reason than to protect themselves from future pre-existing conditions, will be forced to pay 3 per cent more in premium in cross-subsidies, in a twisted interpretation of inclusiveness and collective social responsibility. Such cross-subsidies will increase further when the 30 per cent loading on existing pre-conditions is removed. The remaining cost, said to be 75 per cent of the total cost of providing MediShield Life coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, will be borne by the Government. People With Corporate Non-Portable Hospitalisation Insurance Only 17 out of 1,400 unionised companies in the private sector provide their employees with portable hospitalisation insurance. Since participation in MediShield Life is mandatory, employees covered under corporate plans will be paying MediShield Life premiums (almost) needlessly because any hospitalisation cost can't be reimbursed twice. Not all their MediShield Life premiums will go to waste, though — they will be insured irrespective of the state of their health when their corporate insurance ends eventually. People Living Overseas With participation in MediShield Life being mandatory, the approximately 200,000 Singaporeans who live overseas will be paying MediShield Life premiums (almost) needlessly because they can't claim reimbursement for overseas hospitalisation. Not all their MediShield Life premiums will go to waste, though — they will be insured irrespective of the state of their health when they return to Singapore eventually. However, being compelled to pay MediShield Life premiums may be the tipping point for some to give up their citizenship. People Who Die Before Premium Rebate Age MediShield Life requires policyholders to pre-fund their premiums, and the collective pre-funding pool will be used to offset a small part of their age-group premiums when they are past the premium rebate age. The collective pre-funding pool is reserved for the policyholders in each age group. However, no individual policyholder has ownership of the pre-funding pool. When a policyholder dies, he leaves behind any pre-funded premium that he has contributed but has not used yet. Policyholders who die early subsidise the premiums of others in their age cohort who outlive them. This reduces the likelihood that, or the extent to which, the Government would have to subsidise the premiums of the elderly poor. The dead will be forced to subsidise the hospitalisation costs of the living. Hospitalisation insurance is about risk pooling, not longevity insurance. People With Modest Annual Home Values The permanent subsidies will be a function of per capita household income and annual value ("AV") of their homes. The permanent subsidies will not be given to households with AV exceeding $21,000. As this AV generally separates HDB flats from private properties, the Government seems to be saying that people who live in private properties do not deserve permanent subsidies, just like people with high per capita income. Is a 4-member household with total income of $10,000 living in an HDB 5-room flat or executive condominium less able to pay the premiums than a non-Pioneer Generation retiree in a modest private property with an AV of $22,000? The former gets permanent subsidies but the latter does not, other than on a case-by-case basis. What matters is a person's total financial resources, not just the value of his home. Integrated Shield Plan Policyholders MediShield is a subset of the integrated shield plans and MediShield Life will be a subset of the integrated shield plans. When transitioning from MediShield to MediShield Life, the premiums will increase due to the enhanced benefits. The Ministry of Health says that the increase in premiums for the integrated shield plans resulting from the introduction of MediShield Life is expected to be the same, if not lower than, the increase in MediShield Life premiums. This is incorrect and confusing. With the exception of pre-existing condition coverage, most integrated shield plans already provide much better coverage than MediShield Life, so transitioning from MediShield to MediShield Life only adds pre-existing coverage to most integrated shield plans, and their premiums should not increase by more than the premium for pre-existing conditions together with changes in pre-funding. Any increase more than that takes advantage of the integrated shield plan policyholders. Every MediShield Life Policyholder While MediShield Life Fund should have reserves, the Government's penchant for accumulating reserves may result in its building its reserves far beyond what is actuarially reasonable, to the detriment of policyholders who end up paying more premiums than they should. For example, in the financial year ended 31 December 2013, MediShield Fund collected premiums of $770 million and incurred claims of $335 million. It ended the year with reserves of $613 million. Of its total insurance contract liabilities of $1,700 million, $1,575 million were due in 2015 or later (and presumably projected rather than actual).   RainMaker * The author blogs at refocusing.blogspot.sg    Read More →

CPF Board taking excessive risks to manage Medishield insurance Town councils which had invested residents’ funds in toxic investments probably lost millions during the last financial crisis 6 years ago. Till today, my town council has refused to disclose the losses despite my repeated query. It appears the CPF Board has not learnt any lesson from our estate managers turned part-time fund manager. The CPF Board also manages our Medishield fund. Our healthcare insurance needs could easily be met by a number of private insurers. After all, for the coverage we get from Medishield and Medishield Life, the premiums relatively high. Worse, there is also no transparency. Medishield Fund managed by CPF Board (pg 57) Should CPF Board also act as a fund manager? When it comes to our retirement savings, the Board takes zero risk by ‘investing’ in SSGS which guarantees members the lowest pension fund returns in the world. So why does it deem fit to take on all the risks in managing Medishield funds? What if the fund incurs losses? Will the government then give ‘funny’ excuses to increase our insurance through legislation? Come 2019, total Medishield Life premiums will easily be about $2 billion annually with every resident on board the scheme. (average $500 per person, pre-existing conditions 30% loading, 3.8 million population including PRs) Every road leads to the CPF Medisave top up in 2013 $878 million (pg 24) The PAP government has been channeling increasing amounts of money into the CPF. (see list above) At the start of the year, it appears overly concerned and set the stage (wayang) to inject $9 billion into the Pioneer Generation Package, mostly into the Medisave (MA) or Medishield as subsidies for huge increase in premiums. A few months later, the government announced “permanent subsidies” which will cost billion$ eventually to address the issue of high premiums. How are elderly retirees funding their thousand-dollar premiums? From their children’s MA? Or through government subsidies which is again channeling even more money into CPF? The CPF Board is in no position to act as a fund manager and should transfer members’ risk to insurance companies such as NTUC, AIA, Prudential, etc. With huge surpluses, our Medishield premiums could have been easily reduced. Instead, the CPF Board’s priority is to use the money for its training to become a fund manager? Medishield funds increase by $106 million last year. With new premiums increasing by between 111% and 189%, expect Medishield Fund to increase by hundreds of millions annually. This is not in the interest of CPF members. So we now know our national healthcare insurance is probably a much more profitable business than NTUC supermarkets and taxis. Looks like one can only watch how Medishield Life will shortchange citizens. It is a fact the government can suka suka increase premiums with zero transparency. Healthcare insurance is now its business. Phillip Ang *  The author blogs at  likedatosocanmeh.  Read More →