More affordable healthcare....

[kopiuncle]

WTF subsidies, I for one...avoid the doctors, unless I have something in which I can not cure with OTC ( over the counter medication)...what sub..!?? All I want is that we can but certain patented OTC medicines, which we can buy from the pharmacies, without having to see a doctor & get a prescription.

For example...a certain common drug for certain condition 90% of us have... we have to see a doc to obtain that, for a strip of 10 tabs x 3 = the charge plus doc fees comes to $35. A strip of that drug, branded from Government pharmacies is 0.13cts per tab...same brand, some OTHER places...0.03 per tab, generic is even cheaper. I go see my private doc for a refill of 30 tabs ( 3 x 10), he wanted to charge me for $30... that is $1 a tab, I declined...

What I am saying is there are certain patented drug, that the general public takes for long term can be bought cheaply over the counter, these are not class C drugs under the Poison Act, we are made to buy them from the doctors, who sell them at a profit!!.

Is this the subsidies you are mumbling above..we abused subsidies...who want to be sick!

okay, it's a good idea when you can purchase certain medications /patented or generic OTC...but some medications need a doctor's prescription and a consultation.if you consider paying a consultation to your doctor is too expensive, then you are one of those who consider the role of doctor redundant...

you should consider yourself lucky in Singapore that the consult fee is so low and so affordable...some doctors don't even want to charge consult. if you go overseas, you pay dearly to see a doctor and you pay again to get your prescription from a pharmacist....which system is better?

if you want to self medicate and if you want to monitor yourself, good. you take the consequences of your actions...you don't need a doctor. you can get all the medicaitons from Malaysia, form Thailand and even form Indonesia...many Singaporean do that. but some do consult their own doctors to get a blood screening just in case. from what I know, there are medications which are already OTC...and as the population mature, more medicaitions will be released OTC.

do not begrudge paying a consult to your doctor to get a prescription. it's for your own good.....lol

 

[escher]

If you withdraw everything at 55, what are you going to use when you need $$$ for major open heart surgery at 65?

The government cares for you. That's why they have no choice but to prevent you from squandering your hard earned savings.

Go get that circular bed so that you never get our the wrong side of the bed and write the fucking hosannas for smear of shit on sole of shoe LKY and his fucking PAP

 

[kopiuncle]

The biggest cost to healthcare is the salaries of the specialists, the high end equipments and the cost of drugs. So try cutting down all the so-called "Susan Lims", and negotiated (really negotiate!) for the equipments and try to bring more generics drugs to the scene. U will find huge savings in your medical bills!!

you are absolutely spot on! the specialist clinics are the money spinners. but again, patients demanded for it..doctors willingly obliged. if you care to read about your condition and understand the course of your own illness, you can spare yourself plenty of unnecessary medications and treatment. and save yourself a big headache and your medisave will remain untouched.

I have friends and their spouse who keep themselves busy hoping from one doctor to another , from one specialist to another and from one hospital to another simply because they are covered by their medical insurance. they are nuts - nothing really wrong with them. they just want to make full use of their premiums which they pay with great grudge and anger. this is a good example of an utter abuse.

if they have a cough, they want to see a chest specialist. if they have a headache, they want to see a brain specialist. if they have a stomach ache, they also want to see a specialist. this group of people are the ones who are jacking up the medical cost. and the rest who keep themselves healthy have to subsidize them.

I think the insurance company should have a No Claim Bonus for its members!!!!

 

[halsey02]

okay, it's a good idea when you can purchase certain medications /patented or generic OTC...but some medications need a doctor's prescription and a consultation.if you consider paying a consultation to your doctor is too expensive, then you are one of those who consider the role of doctor redundant...

you should consider yourself lucky in Singapore that the consult fee is so low and so affordable...some doctors don't even want to charge consult. if you go overseas, you pay dearly to see a doctor and you pay again to get your prescription from a pharmacist....which system is better?

if you want to self medicate and if you want to monitor yourself, good. you take the consequences of your actions...you don't need a doctor. you can get all the medicaitons from Malaysia, form Thailand and even form Indonesia...many Singaporean do that. but some do consult their own doctors to get a blood screening just in case. from what I know, there are medications which are already OTC...and as the population mature, more medicaitions will be released OTC.

do not begrudge paying a consult to your doctor to get a prescription. it's for your own good.....lol

I have friends of the family that are medical doctors & in my family tree, there is also a medical doctor... I know what what is for my own good. Of course, If I have an ailment which require a doctor I will go see one..for tests, screening, MRI, Xray etc..

My point is, there are many OTC drugs that do not need a doctor's prescription & these drugs are commonly used, as people go older & it had became a necessity, I do not have to name them. We as consumer here do not get the best in terms of paying , for we end end paying through our noses for them

Like I have mentioned, certain medication I need, government hospital sells at 0.13cts per tab..OTHER PLACES, same medicine, sells for around 0.03 cents per tab, & generic ones are even cheaper!. The government hospital one, is already affordable, at 0.13cts..at time of emergency, where the prescription run out...you can't buy that medicine...I ask my family doctor for a strip of 3 ( 30 tabs)...he told the staff, to tell me that cost $30..

You think, I bought ?? so, I have to go to OTHER PLACES & buy that medicine at less then 0.03cts, same brand, same content...a supply to last me six months....

The doctors here are making money & lots of it from selling the OTC medicines..there are many I could list. We do not need many OTC medicines to get a Rx to buy them...MOH should allow the pharmacies to stock & sell them 24hr/365...if they are class C under Poison Act... then of course, the doctor is needed.

The role of the doctor is not redundant, we still need them, for we cannot 'doctor' ourselves...but we should not be paying that much, a profit margin of few hundred per cent for medication of , I can buy OTC. I do not begrudge paying the doctor for consultation....it is medicine that have to be made affordable & accessible.

 

[eErotica69]

That's the problem with PAPpies ...they don't think. Medisave issue is NOT the problem. The problem is the HIGH cost of healthcare in sinkapore. Why is healthcare provided in government hospitals so high?????? The doctors are on salaries, the hospitals have economies of scale advantage, they are able to pay low wages to foreign nurses ....so who is pocketing the hidden profits?????

Import more FT doctors from India n PRC?

 

[laksaboy]

That's the problem with PAPpies ...they don't think. Medisave issue is NOT the problem. The problem is the HIGH cost of healthcare in sinkapore. Why is healthcare provided in government hospitals so high?????? The doctors are on salaries, the hospitals have economies of scale advantage, they are able to pay low wages to foreign nurses ....so who is pocketing the hidden profits?????

Lemme guess... Singhealth, NHG and various other 'REIT' of hospitals?