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[h=1]GOVT COLLECTS DATA TO MAKE IT EASIER TO PENALISE S'POREANS FOR MEDISHIELD[/h]
Post date:
29 Apr 2015 - 10:26am
[photo credit: The Straits Times]
The government is sending out letters to collect more information from Singaporean households to check on their data.
On paper, the Ministry of Health (MOH), which is administering this exercise, said that the exercise is intended to allow them to collect up-to-date data of households so that they can provide accurate subsidies for these households for their premiums for MediShield Life.
Last year, the government announced MediShield Life which it made compulsory for all Singaporeans. It then increased the premiums that Singaporeans have to pay heavily, and then added subsidies.
MOM said that two in three Singapore residents will receive the "Premium Subsidies", which is meant for lower- to middle-income families.
But the Transitional Subsidies are only available for four years.
MOM also said that the disbursements of the Premium Subsidies are automatic and that there is no need to apply for them.
And which is why they are conducting a Household Check exercise between 1 May 2015 and 19 June 2015 to confirm the household information online.
MOH also said that it will tap on existing information in Government records to determine households’ eligibility and subsidies.
Currently, the government would be able to access information on a person's income, their household size as well as other information from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (IRAS) or the Central Provident Fund (CPF).
Coupled with the information from the Household Check, the government will now be able to triangulate to assess the exact situation and needs of each household and individual.
But there is something more sinister to this exercise.
Earlier this year, the government passed a bill which said that people who do not pay their MediShield Life premiums will be fined or jailed.
And the penalties are heavy. The fine can go up to $5,000 and a person can be jailed for up to a year, or both.
As such, MOH does not say it in their media release, on paper it looks like an exercise to allow them to dispense "accurate subsidies" but the truer intention? It is to allow them to find out the exact situation on households, find out why they are not paying and be able to enact the penalties of not paying onto them more easily.
Another thing that is perplexing is this. The government claims that it is spending $4 billion to pay for the subsidies for the MediShield Life premiums. But this is all very convoluted. Why did the government create Medisave, and then the MediShield Life, and then get people to pay for the MediShield Life premiums by using the Medisave, and via cash top-ups which if they otherwise don't pay would mean that they would be fined up to $5,000 or jailed, which really defeats the whole purpose if they cannot pay.
But you get the point.
With the $4 billion, the government can instead pump in the money directly to give subsidies to Singaporeans for their healthcare bills. Why does the government not do that?
Instead, why does the government want to subsidise the MediShield premiums, instead for the healthcare bills themselves?
The reason is because of profit. Do you know that MediShield is the most profitable national healthcare scheme in the world?
MOH revealed last year that MediShield has assets of $2.4 billion and the claims to premiums ratio is 59 percent.
This means that the bulk of money paid into MediShield actually does not get used but becomes profit for the government. Basically, the much of the money does not get pumped back into paying for healthcare needs. But where to? It's anybody's guess.
As such, if the government is spending $4 billion every year into subsidising their own profits, does this make sense?
Moreover, when including the potential fines that people will have to pay if they are unable to pay for their premiums, this would mean even more money for the government. But where the government has a lot of excess money in MediShield and $4 billion they are spending on subsidising MediShield Life premiums, does it still make sense to fine or jail Singaporeans who cannot pay?
Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor also told Channel NewsAsia: "In fact, it is actually the first time that the Government is adopting this approach of facilitated eligibility checks.
"And by that we mean actually using information data that is currently residing in our Government database to determine the eligibility of the household for subsidies. And the reason why we are doing this is so that they do not have to apply for the subsidies."
If so, if there is now a mechanism in place where the government would be able to dispense subsidies without having to ask Singaporeans to apply for them, can this procedure now be applied throughout all help schemes in Singapore.
It is known that when Singaporeans have to apply for Medifund or other social assistance schemes, that they have to go through cumbersome and lengthy procedures, sometimes taking even up to weeks, and where applicants have been known to fall out simply because the procedures take up too much time for work, for example.
Moreover, many of these applicants not only have to apply for one help scheme but would usually have to apply for several at the same time. They would also be required to apply every few months because the assistance dispensed lasts for a short duration. As such, many times, the applicants have to spend a significant amount of their time just going through procedures after procedures, when they are also heavily in need of a job.
As such, with the automated process put in place now by the MOH for automatic subsidies disbursements, it would only make sense that the government now use this mechanism for the other social assistance applications as well.
But knowing the government, they might not do so. To ease the process would allow more people to access subsidies and quicker financial assistance. For a government which has been resistant towards giving financial aid to its citizens, this is a big no-no. In fact, the Singapore government spends the lowest in social protection for its citizens among the developed countries. And Singaporeans pay the highest expenditure out of our own pockets for healthcare, if not the highest.
And of course, if the government does not extend this mechanism to the other social assistance schemes, then you will know that the whole purpose of this exercise to collect more data from Singaporean households is to really facilitate their collection of fines from Singaporeans and penalising them.
Post date:
29 Apr 2015 - 10:26am
[photo credit: The Straits Times]
The government is sending out letters to collect more information from Singaporean households to check on their data.
On paper, the Ministry of Health (MOH), which is administering this exercise, said that the exercise is intended to allow them to collect up-to-date data of households so that they can provide accurate subsidies for these households for their premiums for MediShield Life.
Last year, the government announced MediShield Life which it made compulsory for all Singaporeans. It then increased the premiums that Singaporeans have to pay heavily, and then added subsidies.
MOM said that two in three Singapore residents will receive the "Premium Subsidies", which is meant for lower- to middle-income families.
But the Transitional Subsidies are only available for four years.
MOM also said that the disbursements of the Premium Subsidies are automatic and that there is no need to apply for them.
And which is why they are conducting a Household Check exercise between 1 May 2015 and 19 June 2015 to confirm the household information online.
MOH also said that it will tap on existing information in Government records to determine households’ eligibility and subsidies.
Currently, the government would be able to access information on a person's income, their household size as well as other information from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (IRAS) or the Central Provident Fund (CPF).
Coupled with the information from the Household Check, the government will now be able to triangulate to assess the exact situation and needs of each household and individual.
But there is something more sinister to this exercise.
Earlier this year, the government passed a bill which said that people who do not pay their MediShield Life premiums will be fined or jailed.
And the penalties are heavy. The fine can go up to $5,000 and a person can be jailed for up to a year, or both.
As such, MOH does not say it in their media release, on paper it looks like an exercise to allow them to dispense "accurate subsidies" but the truer intention? It is to allow them to find out the exact situation on households, find out why they are not paying and be able to enact the penalties of not paying onto them more easily.
Another thing that is perplexing is this. The government claims that it is spending $4 billion to pay for the subsidies for the MediShield Life premiums. But this is all very convoluted. Why did the government create Medisave, and then the MediShield Life, and then get people to pay for the MediShield Life premiums by using the Medisave, and via cash top-ups which if they otherwise don't pay would mean that they would be fined up to $5,000 or jailed, which really defeats the whole purpose if they cannot pay.
But you get the point.
With the $4 billion, the government can instead pump in the money directly to give subsidies to Singaporeans for their healthcare bills. Why does the government not do that?
Instead, why does the government want to subsidise the MediShield premiums, instead for the healthcare bills themselves?
The reason is because of profit. Do you know that MediShield is the most profitable national healthcare scheme in the world?
MOH revealed last year that MediShield has assets of $2.4 billion and the claims to premiums ratio is 59 percent.
This means that the bulk of money paid into MediShield actually does not get used but becomes profit for the government. Basically, the much of the money does not get pumped back into paying for healthcare needs. But where to? It's anybody's guess.
As such, if the government is spending $4 billion every year into subsidising their own profits, does this make sense?
Moreover, when including the potential fines that people will have to pay if they are unable to pay for their premiums, this would mean even more money for the government. But where the government has a lot of excess money in MediShield and $4 billion they are spending on subsidising MediShield Life premiums, does it still make sense to fine or jail Singaporeans who cannot pay?
Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor also told Channel NewsAsia: "In fact, it is actually the first time that the Government is adopting this approach of facilitated eligibility checks.
"And by that we mean actually using information data that is currently residing in our Government database to determine the eligibility of the household for subsidies. And the reason why we are doing this is so that they do not have to apply for the subsidies."
If so, if there is now a mechanism in place where the government would be able to dispense subsidies without having to ask Singaporeans to apply for them, can this procedure now be applied throughout all help schemes in Singapore.
It is known that when Singaporeans have to apply for Medifund or other social assistance schemes, that they have to go through cumbersome and lengthy procedures, sometimes taking even up to weeks, and where applicants have been known to fall out simply because the procedures take up too much time for work, for example.
Moreover, many of these applicants not only have to apply for one help scheme but would usually have to apply for several at the same time. They would also be required to apply every few months because the assistance dispensed lasts for a short duration. As such, many times, the applicants have to spend a significant amount of their time just going through procedures after procedures, when they are also heavily in need of a job.
As such, with the automated process put in place now by the MOH for automatic subsidies disbursements, it would only make sense that the government now use this mechanism for the other social assistance applications as well.
But knowing the government, they might not do so. To ease the process would allow more people to access subsidies and quicker financial assistance. For a government which has been resistant towards giving financial aid to its citizens, this is a big no-no. In fact, the Singapore government spends the lowest in social protection for its citizens among the developed countries. And Singaporeans pay the highest expenditure out of our own pockets for healthcare, if not the highest.
And of course, if the government does not extend this mechanism to the other social assistance schemes, then you will know that the whole purpose of this exercise to collect more data from Singaporean households is to really facilitate their collection of fines from Singaporeans and penalising them.
