TR EMERITUS

SDP Treasurer, Ms Chong Wai Fung, spoke at the Hong Lim Park Return Our CPF rally today. Ms Chong is a healthcare research analyst and holds two Masters degree, one in Clinical Epidemiology and another in Business Administration. Below is the text of her speech: Good afternoon fellow Singaporeans! It is wonderful to see so many of you here today. We can all agree that the CPF issue is a very important one as it affects every single one of us here. I am not speaking for the organization that I work for but I am speaking here in my capacity as the Treasurer of the SDP. I would like to thank Hui Hui for inviting the SDP here this afternoon. The Government recently announced that it will pump in $4 billion to subsidise Medishield Life. This may sound like a lot of money until we are told that that is over 5 years. In other words, it is $0.8 billion a year. How much do we spend on healthcare each year? Our nation spends a total $12 billion a year on healthcare. So, $0.8 billion is only a measly 6.5%. Let’s put things in perspective: How much money did the government collect in GST last year? The Government collected nearly $10 billion in GST revenue last year, more than 10 times the amount of subsidy to be given to Medishield Life. The revenue from Road Tax in one year itself can cover the $0.8 billion easily. The $4 billion over 5 years is the same amount that Temasek so easily offered in March for Olam International, a debt-ridden company. And yet, the Government has already warned us that the Medishield Life premiums will eventually increase after holding it steady for the first 5 years. Furthermore, we are concerned that these subsidies may not go directly to patient care but rather towards the Medishield Life provider which is already one of the world's most profitable insurance companies based on its Medical Loss Ratio. For the past 11 years, Medishield has an average medical loss ratio of 63%. For 2013, the medical loss ratio reached a historical low of 43%! In other words, for every $100 Medishield collected, it paid out only $43 and pockets $57! I think very few businesses in the world can achieve this level of profit. By comparison, the US, which is the most capitalist of countries, private health insurance schemes are not allowed to have a medical loss ratio of less than 80%, meaning they cannot have profit of more than 20%! But wait! The rest of the world is wrong. According to our government, the private insurance companies have got it all wrong by using the Medical Loss Ratio. Our very responsible government takes a long term and sustainable approach to everything. It says that the Medical Loss Ratio is a less appropriate approach. So, it introduced what it called the Medishield Incurred Loss Ratio, that takes into account “future liabilities”. Using this calculation, the ratio is 96%. So Medishield is not so profitable. It only makes $4 profit for every $100 that is collects in premiums. Do you believe them? The Government needs to stop making money from Singaporeans at every turn. It is unacceptable that while it makes a big deal out of increasing subsidy for healthcare and then making money from us through Medishield Life. How were premiums calculated? Where is the transparency for this? Premiums keep increasing as we get older, but that is the time when most of us see our income decline as we are pushed out of the job market. In addition, the premiums for Medishield Life will be taken from our Medisave accounts. Medisave money is taken from our CPF accounts. There is already little left in one's CPF after the money is used for paying HDB loans. Taking even more money out to service Medishield Life premiums will mean greater hardship from Singaporeans when they retire. The Government also says it will not increase premiums for five years. In other words, it will increase premiums after 5 years. Singaporeans must be very wary of this. This is a sugar-coated poison that will cost us dearly in the years to come. Remember the GST? It started from 3%, increased to 4%, then 5%, and now 7%. After the next elections it will probably go up again. The CPF Minimum Sum Scheme started by withholding $80,000 of an individual's CPF savings but has, through the years, doubled to $155,000 presently. When premiums increase, more of your CPF money will be transferred to your Medisave Account to meet the Medisave Minimum Sum. We will always be chasing after the minimum sum! What is wrong with this government? The healthcare financing system is getting too complicated for us to follow. You get payment of our hospital bills from multiple sources: Medisave, Medishield, Medifund, Pioneer Generation Package, from our own pockets - which by the way is the highest in East Asia - private insurance, employers, and now Medishield Life. And just like the CPF scheme, the complexity of the system allows the Government to extract much cash from us. The government says that it has multiple tiers of protection to ensure that healthcare is affordable. How is affordability decided? How much of household income is spent on healthcare when we need it? Why can’t it be made simple? Why does the government spend so much of our money on outreach and public education, trying to explain all the options on healthcare financing? Why not simplify the whole system? The SDP has a proposal that is rather simple. Let's get rid of the 3Ms and institute only one source of payment - the National Health Investment Fund or NHIF. Under the SDP's system, we return the Medisave money to Singaporeans' CPF accounts which people can keep for their retirement. Under our plan, Singaporeans then pay an average of $400/year into the NHIF. The Government will pay the remainder of the $12 billion into the NHIF. When we are hospitalised, we pay only 10% of the bill (capped at $2,000/year) while the NHIF pays the remaining 90%. In this way, the government pays 70% of our country's total healthcare expenditure, a percentage which governments from other developed economies are paying. At present, the PAP government pays only 30% and makes Singaporeans and businesses shoulder the main bulk of our healthcare expenses. This is wrong. I repeat: The Government must stop making profit off the back of Singaporeans when they fall ill. It must assume its responsibility in line with what other First World governments are doing. There is no need to raise taxes to 50%, or raid the reserves, as suggested by the government. Stop telling us that it is irresponsible to withdraw our CPF money, or that it is irresponsible if the government does not increase our reserves every year. We must reduce the burden on the sick especially those who are poor. This is only possible in a co-operative and compassionate society. The government has the responsibility to ensure that the taxes collected are used for the common good. Caring for the sick is not welfarism but the fruit of a compassionate society. Our proposal spelt out in The SDP National Healthcare Plan: Caring for All Singaporeans, makes healthcare in Singapore universal, compassionate and more efficient. It is the better alternative. This alternative to the government’s plan, and our proposals on housing and education, are available on our website yoursdp.org. Come talk to us to find out more. We will present it again at the next general elections and we ask for your active support and get us into Parliament. Now more than ever we need a competent, constructive and compassionate opposition in Parliament. SDP is that opposition! Thank you. Singapore Democrats  Read More →

Transcript of Kenneth Jeyaretnam's Speech at the Medishield Life Rally today (as it was ad lib there may be some slight variations) Kenneth Jeyaretnam Welcome to my fellow Singaporeans. It’s really great to be here and witness this solidarity. I would like to thank Hui Hui for organizing and promoting this event. As usual she did a great job. And again this is ground breaking for me because she invited me. I didn’t have to gatecrash. This is a really professionally organized event. It used to be that we came to the Park as a last resort, because we had nowhere else to go. But Hong Lim Park over the last month or so has grown up. Now it is the best place in Singapore, the only place, to hold an honest conversation. We come here not as a LAST resort but as a FIRST choice. Our little corner of the Park has become a market place - a market place of ideas where we Singaporeans are starting to stand up for our rights and demand freedom of expression. When a young man emerged, a blogger, and he got sued by the head of GIC and a very powerful and extremely rich man who also happened to be the Prime Minister , we felt a seismic shift in Singapore like a force 8 on the Richter scale. When he raised 100,000 dollars to pay his fines and legal costs it was like a tsunami. We could see our society changing like a wall of water sweeping away all oppression in its path. We all of us stood up in solidarity to say that we are fed up with the bullying. When we stand up for Roy we are saying, "We’ve had enough!" "We Singaporeans are not going to lie down and let this government walk over us any more. We pay them after all. They must work for us." Yesterday Lee Hsien Loong filed for summary judgement against Roy. His legal counsel M Ravi is pushing back against that as hard as he can, But you know, I had a family member who was sued into bankruptcy on defamation and other charges and so I know - maybe more than most - maybe more intimately - the kind of strain that Roy must be under and the impact this must be having on his family. We Singaporeans are a reasonable people. We are a peace loving and mostly well-behaved people. We don’t like to make a fuss. But today - right now - before I go any further I’d like you to make a bit of a fuss. I’d like you - for Roy’s sake - to make a lot of noise. So altogether put your hands together and let’s just hear a big cheer for Roy. *************************************************************************************** The theme of today’s rally is Medishield Life. Medishield Life has accumulated large reserves which the Government says is necessary to meet future claims. I disagree. The Government is not taking into account investment income on the premiums. In the US insurers are required to rebate back to their policy holders if total claims in any year fall below 85% of premiums collected. We need this in Singapore. More than that, we need to ensure that when the surplus goes above a certain level you get a rebate in ACTUAL cash, not a transfer into CPF that you never get to touch. The PAP always say that Opposition will squander the reserves. But wake up PAP! We Singaporeans are wise to your tricks now. We are wise to the fact that the PAP are doing a pretty good job of squandering the reserves on their own. Earlier you heard our friend talk about the confusion that even an insurance specialist encounters when dealing with Medishield Life. And throughout this afternoon you are going to hear a lot about the questions we still have. Questions that people like Hri Kumar like to dodge - questions that we need answers to. But before we think about those answers let me tell you a story about questions. A boy sees a man on a park bench with a big, beautiful looking dog. The boy goes up to the man and asks "Sir, does your dog bite?" The man says "No". The boy reaches out a hand to stroke the dog and the dog sinks his teeth into his arm. The boy runs around screaming and crying and when he has recovered, he says "But Sir, you said your dog doesn’t bite". The man replies, "That’s right my dog doesn’t bite. That’s not my dog." The point of this story is that it isn’t enough to ask questions. You have to ask the RIGHT question. And you have to ask the RIGHT person, the right question. So what is the right question? Well I believe the right question is one that may produce a truth that is uncomfortable. Not just the PAP but most of us spend our whole lives ignoring, concealing or pretending we don’t know the facts because we are afraid of the truth. But no one should ever be afraid of the truth. The promise between a government and the people who elect it, is a coin. On one face of that coin is the TRUTH and on the other face is TRUST. Truth is the coin of trust. Trust is the coin of truth. Because the government will not open the books and show us the truth about how they manage OUR money they have broken the trust. The PAP will start to ask you a great many questions to make you doubt yourselves. But we must never try to forget the facts because they are uncomfortable. Last week a PAP man, Mohamed Bashir, spoke in this park. He didn’t get to talk for very long. Before he left he asked a question. He asked, "is the Opposition ready to take over?" Was that the right question? No. Of course not. Don’t let anyone fool you with the wrong questions. I can tell you no opposition is ever really ready to take over on the day they take over. But the Opposition do it anyway and that is how democracy functions, to improve the lives of the citizens. Today it is my job to tell you the truth and to give you the facts even if they make you uncomfortable. It is my duty to tell you the right question and the right person to ask. Even if it makes you dislike me. You see my popularity doesn’t matter. What matter is the dignity of our people the success of our nation and the future of our way of life. I don’t see that there’s any point in asking the PAP questions any more. They are not going to answer. Hri Kumar somehow thinks it’s appropriate to compare organizing a forum, badly, with America’s greatest general rallying his troops before a crucial battle against the Nazis. The only struggle I saw at his forum was when one of his organisers laid a hand on an old lady in an attempt to remove her from the mic. Then afterwards Hri Kumar revealed the old lady’s address to the press so that she became a victim of online harassment - that was inexcusable for an MP and a Senior Counsel who should understand confidentiality. I’m sorry to disillusion Hri Kumar. He is not engaged in a noble fight for freedom and democracy! He’s just a magician trying to pull a conjuring trick in a cheap magic show. There is only one question I see any point in and only one person to be asked. You see the question is not whether the opposition is ready to take over. The question is this. "Are you ready to deal with the consequences if they don’t?" Are you ready to live with this dynasty for another 50 years? Will you be able to look into your children’s eyes in future years and tell them why you said nothing, did nothing when you had the chance? And you have to ask yourself this question. "Am I ready to accept the consequences if I don’t vote the opposition in". You are the only one who can answer it with any degree of truth. When you go home today you should look in the mirror and ask, " Am I prepared to vote the PAP out?" And if not, " am I prepared to live with the consequences, for myself and my children and my children’s children?" Thank you all. Have a great weekend Kenneth Jeyaretnam Secretary General The Reform Party  Read More →

Minister Grace Fu Last Monday (7 Jul), 2nd Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu told Parliament that some 655 illegal hawkers were caught in the first six months of this year and two thirds of them were foreigners. Ms Fu was replying to an MP's question asking her Ministry to give an overview of the extent of illegal hawking in Singapore. Ms Fu said, "NEA has to take action against illegal hawking in order to ensure that food and goods sold do not pose a risk to public health and the act of illegal hawking does not cause public nuisance." "Two thirds of the 655 illegal hawkers found in the first six months of this year were foreigners," she added. Under the current regime, composition sums of $300, $400 and $500 will be offered for the first, second and third-time offenders respectively. Upon the fourth and subsequent offences, the illegal hawkers will be prosecuted in Court. Illegal foreign hawkers may also be banned from entering Singapore, she said. With regard to Singaporeans engaging in illegal hawking, Ms Fu said that the financial circumstances of these Singaporeans will be investigated. "Where appropriate, they are referred to the Social Service Offices of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and Community Development Councils (CDCs) for job and financial assistance," she assured. Opposition members have been summoned for "illegal hawking" before It's not known out of the 655 illegal hawkers caught in the first 6 months this year, how many were opposition politicians. Four years ago, some opposition politicians from NSP were summoned for "illegal hawking". At the time, then secretary-general of NSP, Goh Meng Seng, and his colleagues were doing their usual political outreach in constituencies and promoting their newsletter publications at the same time. They were warned for "illegal hawking" and NSP Vice President Christopher Neo was eventually charged for the offence. Mr Goh wrote on his blog at the time [Link], "It is pretty bizarre that political activists who make sacrifice of their time and effort to be involved in public service of politics were charged for 'illegal hawking'." "It is pretty insulting actually. Most probably someone in National Environment Agency doesn't really know what exactly an illegal hawker is," added Mr Goh. Mr Goh further added: The survival of NSP is being threaten now due to this "illegal hawking" summon. The only difference is that WE ARE NOT HAWKERS but VOLUNTEERS in Political Public Service. The law is inappropriately applied to us and it would mean that politically, NSP will face closure if its political activity of promoting its messages and publications are being curtailed. Just today, I have met an old gentleman who accused us of appearing just before elections. I explained to him that we have been selling our North Star all around Singapore for years! PAP has always sneered at opposition parties by saying we only work when elections come. That is totally untrue and PAP knows it. Be it walkabout on the ground or various press releases on policies and current issues, NSP has been pretty active doing all these. It is now NEA trying to curtail our political activism on the ground by issuing such silly summon of "illegal hawking". Choosing between becoming a totally law abiding of silly law which make us politically inactive and being an effective political party actively engaging the ground but risks being summoned as "illegal hawkers" by NEA, I would choose the later. I am not here to make NSP just a flower vase of PAP's farce pseudo Democracy. I am here to make NSP an effective party that would actively challenge and put proper checks and balances on PAP's dominance of power. This is not only about the survival of NSP or any other opposition parties alone. It is about the sustainability of the healthy political development for Singapore. If there is a small price to be paid as being insulted as "illegal hawkers" by the unreasonable PAP's rule, so be it.  Read More →