Saturday, March 17, 2018

What are your views about Ong Ye Kung?

Here are the results of the votes on the issue in The Wisdom of the Crowd - What are your views about Ong Ye Kung?

71% of the voters think that he is arrogant and think highly of his capabilities.

14% said that he is somewhat immature and inexperienced.


A total of 85% had a negative opinion. The remaining 15% has a positive view.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=533

What are your views about Heng Swee Keat?

Here are the results of the votes on the issue in The Wisdom of the Crowd - What are your views about Heng Swee Keat?

72% of the voters think that he is arrogant and think highly of his capabilities.

6% said that he is somewhat immature and inexperienced.

A total of 78% had a negative opinion. The remaining 22% has a positive view.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=534

Do you support the government's plan to increase GST to provide more social benefits

Here are the results of the voting on this issue in the Wisdom of the Crowd - Do you support the government's plan to increase GST to provide more social benefits

49% of the voters said that the government should give more social benefits by reducing wasteful spending.

24% said that they can increase social benefits without tax increases.

22% said that they will collect more revenue and give very little in return.

A total of 95% are negative towards this move. The remaining 5% are supportive.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=535

Do you expect North Korea to abandan their nuclear development in 2018?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - Do you expect North Korea to abandan their nuclear development in 2018?

Here are the results of the voting.

48% said that this is not likely to happen. They cannot trust the North Korean regime.

36% said that America has an interest to keep the high tension in North Korea.

A total of 84% said that this is not likely to happen. The remaining 16% are positive.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=529

Is Sylvia Lim's remark about the trial balloon offensive?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - Is Sylvia Lim's remark about the trial balloon offensive?

Here are the results of the voting.

51% said that the PAP ministers are acting as bullies.

46% said that Sylvia Lim is justified in making the remark.

A total of 96% are positive towards Sylvia Lim. The remaining 4% said that she should apologize for making the remark.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=530

Do you support the building of terminal 5?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - Do you support the building of terminal 5

63% said they objected as they did not see the budget and the payback calculations.

15% said that it is costly and extravagant.

7% said that we should spend a smaller budget and keep the other four terminals.

A total of 85% is against this project. The remaining 15% support it.

See the breakdown of the votes at
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=531

The total of the negative vote is 82%. The remaining 18% said that this is necessary for our future.

Vote on these issues in The Wisdom of the Crowd

Is the government spending the tax revenue prudently and wisely?

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

Should the Deductible be removed from the Medishield and integrated plans?
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

Friday, March 16, 2018

Consider removing deductible for integrated plans

Co-payment feature in insurance riders: Consider removing deductible for integrated plans

By TAN KIN LIAN, PRESIDENT, FINANCIAL SERVICES CONSUMER ASSOCIATION

The Ministry of Health has announced that new riders for all Integrated Shield Plans should have a co-payment of at least 5 per cent of the hospital bill, subject to a cap.

I wish to suggest a more holistic approach to this matter.

The Integrated Shield Plans comprise a MediShield Life portion managed by the Central Provident Fund (CPF), and another portion with extra coverage by private insurers.

The problem with the Standard Integrated Shield Plan is the high deductible, the fixed amount in cash the claimant has to pay before insurance payout kicks in.

There is no need to have a deductible to deter patients from staying in the hospital. They go for treatment out of necessity, rather than choice.

If the deductible is removed, there is no need for policyholders to buy a rider.

The co-payment of 10 per cent that is found in the Standard Integrated Shield Plan can remain, and a cap can be placed on that.

Over the longer term, we also need to address the problem of the escalating charges for treatment in hospitals and specialists.

I suggest that the Ministry of Health study the system used in Japan. Each year, their ministry negotiates with hospitals and doctors on the fixed fees to be charged for most kinds of medical procedures.

I understand that the providers have to follow strictly to these fees and are not allowed to make extra billings on the patients.

We can adopt the same approach for all treatments that are covered Medisave, Medishield Life and the integrated plans.

I believe that this approach will address the root of the problem and will also reduce the cost of administration of the financial payments for healthcare.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Should we remove PSLE?

Here are the results of the voting in The Wisdom of the Crowd on this issue - Should we remove PSLE?

40% said that we should scrap PSLE entirely to remove the pressure on the children.

28% said we should keep PSLE but show the results in two bands - pass, fail.

22% said that we should keep PSLE in its present form as it encourages students to study hard and get good results.

10% said that we should keep PSLE but have three bands - excellent, pass, fail.

A total of 72% prefer PSLE to be scrapped or changed significantly.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=528

Vote on these issues in The Wisdom of the Crowd

What are your views about the abrupt change in the US secreatary of state

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

What is the best way to control the escalation of medical charges
Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Vote on these issues in The Wisdom of the Crowd

Should schools start later in the morning?

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

What is the best way to control the spiraling cost of health care

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

Can you understand all the confusing "Life" schemes?

Many people are confused with CPF Life, Medishield Life and Eldershield Life.

They are also confused with the earlier versions of these CPF schemes. They do not understand what is being covered under each scheme. Some of the coverage seems to be over lapping.

To add to the confusion, there are two options available in CPF Life (previously, there were four). There are also many options available under the integrated plans (which is an alternative to Medishield Life).

They still do not understand what is covered under Eldershield or Eldershield Life. Even if someone takes the trouble to explain to them, it will not help. They will remain confused.

Some of these schemes are compulsory and some are opt-out. And some are compuslory only for certain people and optional for the others. This adds to the confusion.

Confused? So am I.

I believe that all of these "Life" schemes are cooked up by Lee HL. He likes to have complicated schemes because he can understand them. But he does not realize that most other people are not as smart as he is. How many people graduated with a double first degree from a prestigious UK university?

Maybe, he has another reason. Maybe he wants the "Life" schemes to be his legacy.

With the passage of time, will people get to understand these schemes better? I doubt it. A decade has passed, and many people are still confused with them. Some might understand the scheme, but many are not able to cope.

Could all of these confusion be avoided?

Yes. If someone cared to listen. Ten years ago or thereabouts, there was a committee formed to study CPF Life. I met the committee. I gave my views - do not make CPF Life compulsory, make it attractive!

Basically, I suggested that members should be allowed to take out their CPF savings at 65 if they wish to. It is their money. Let them decide what to do with it. Maybe they have some debt and need the money to repay the debt.

However, make CPF Life attractive. Offer an attractive subsidy for them to buy this plan. For example, it may cost $100,000 to buy a life annuity that makes a monthly payment of $X for the rest of life. If they buy a similar plan from CPF Life, they only need to pay $70,000 from the CPF savings. The subsidy of 30% comes from the government.

The government can afford the subsidy because they have been making a lot of money from the difference between what they actually earned from investing the CPF savings and the interest of 2.5% paid to the CPF members. That is a lot of money for all the past years.

If there is an attractive subsidy, I am sure that many people will queue up to join CPF Life. Some may hesistate initially (because they don't trust the government) but they will queue up later when they saw other people joined voluntarily.

The same approach can be done for Medishield Life and for Eldershield Life. By the way, there is no need for Eldershield because it can be made a part of Medishield.

I am sure that the people who joined will understand the scheme. They will not be confused. They will remember that they paid only $70,000 for a scheme that cost $100,000 in the private market.

Sadly, the committee refused to consider my suggestion. They must be thinking about what Lee HL wanted. He wanted CPF Life a certain way .He got it.

And the people got all kinds of confusing "Life" schemes that they cannot understand.

Welcome to Singapore.

Tan Kin Lian

Monday, March 12, 2018

Insurance premium is a heavy commitment

Sally visited my office to seek my office on the life insurance policies that she and her husband had bought. They are paying too much premium and wish to reduce their budget.

Sally is 35 and her husband is 40 years.

TKL - Do you have any children?

Sally - No.

TKL - Is it your choice or you had difficulty getting a baby?

Sally - Baby hard to come by.

TKL - Is it due to stress and over work?

Sally - Quite likely. I have many friends in the same situation.

We went through the life insurance policies from two companies. We found that three policies were bought for investments, but gave a negative return. Sally will probably give up these policies.

She and her husband had adequate term insurance. They provide adequate cover, even after the life policies are cancelled.

They also bought two critical illness policies. Are they necessary? The premium is more than $100 a month. It does not provide any return.

I do not have any statistics on the claim to premium ratio. This would be a good way to understand if the policy is good for consumers.

My own preference is to avoid this type of cover. But I am not able to give a convincing reason - other than to say that the insurance company makes a big profit from selling this type of policy.

Sally decided to reduce the sum assured by 50%. This will reduce the premium by 50%. It seemed to be a good approach.

As Sally is having a difficult time with her budget, I did not ask her to make a donation to FISCA for my time.

Tan Kin Lian



























Keep SingPass option for business users of e-govt services

Straits Times Forum.

I am a director of a company as well as an office bearer of an association.

Up until recently, I have used SingPass to log into government websites for personal matters as well as matters involving my company and association.

But now, with CorpPass replacing SingPass for businesses, I have to register separate CorpPass accounts for my company and association. Each account must have a unique ID, user ID and password.

It is not easy to remember the different details associated with the two CorpPass accounts. If I become involved in more companies or associations, it will become even more difficult.

I suggest that government websites allow users to choose either SingPass or CorpPass, instead of removing the SingPass option.

Tan Kin Lian

Terminal 5 and Downtown Line - signs of poor leadership?

I was depressed by two news items this morning. It reminded me of how bad the situation is and how much Singapore has regressed under the leadership of Lee HL.

The first new item is the "relief package" that is being put together to help airlines using Changi Airport. It followed the recent announcements that passengers will soon have to pay higher charges to fund the building of Terminal 5.

The reaction from the airlines and from IATA (Internatial Air Transport Association) must have been severe to cause this kind of panic reaction.

This raised many unanswered questions:

a) a) Why do we need to build Terminal 5 which is bigger than T1, T2 and T3 combined? Is it intended to replace these terminals?
b) Should we have build a smaller terminal to complement the existing terminals?
c) How much does Terminal 5 cost?
d) Can it be funded from the reserves - can we ask the Elected President to approve it?

It is certainly a bad idea to fund it by increasing the charges on passengers. Many of them will avoid Singapore - this is my judgement. Why are we taking this risk, when we already faced many issues about competitiveness internationally?

The second news item is about the ridership on the Downtown Line belong lower than expected. When we build the new MRT lines, the budget was horrendous.

The cost of the Downtown Line was reported to be $20.7 billion in 2012. I have not seen any updated figure. I expect that it would be higher. I remembered the Thomson Line cost $18 billion. That is probably more than Terminal 5 (estimated to cost more than $10 billion).

If there is lower ridership on the Downtown Line, we can expect the situation to be worse when the Thomson Line is ready. What about the other new lines that are being planned? Will they cost a lot of money and are they really necessary?

I have been very concerned about the way that large infrastructure projects are being approved, apparently without proper analysis of the need and the cost benefit analysis. Surely, the financial studies should be publicised to the public at large? They come from our taxes, right?

I have a nagging fear. Large infrastructure projects and purchases of military hardware are the source of massive corruption and bribery in many countries. Do we have a robust system to prevent this kind of corruption and bribery in Singapore? I wonder.

Some people will say that the large infrastructure projects are being planned for 6.7 million population or maybe the 10 million population. That would make Singapore too crowded, right?

Tan Kin Lian

What is the best way for the government to deal with "fake news

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - What is the best way for the government to deal with "fake news"

73% of those who voted said that the government should present the facts and let the people judge for themselves.

8% said ignore the fact news as people will not believe them.

This makes a total of 81%.

19% supported the move to pass a law to make it an offense to spread fake news.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=527

Do you agree with PM Lee's praise of Low TK's speech on the role of Singapore?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - Do you agree with PM Lee's praise of Low TK's speech on the role of Singapore?

59% of those who voted said that PM Lee is a hypocrite. His MP followed his behavior.
21% said that PM Lee should ask him MP to avoid personal attack on the Worker Party MPs.
A total of 80% looked at his action unfavorably.
The remaining 20% gave favourable comments about PM Lee.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=526

Sunday, March 11, 2018

A messy and inefficient health insurance system

Hi Mr Tan,
Your post on the over consumption of medical services is very good and to the point. Unfortunately, as we know by now, the government will not retract its stand even when it is clearly wrong.

For the shield plans issue, I have a few comments :

1) This point I have raised many times but MOH seems to be brushed under the carpet. I believe that majority of the policyholders are working adults. As company medical insurance is compulsory and shield plans are on last payout status, why has the insurer not put on action on getting policyholders to claim from their company insurance? I believe it is a paradox problem as most of the shield plan insurers are also corporate insurance providers. If the policyholders claim from the corporate insurance, they will have to increase the premiums for the companies. Hence, it maybe easier to not do too much and when claims raises they can show MOH the stats and increase the premiums accordingly. As it is mandated for shield plans to be last payor, all policyholders should do their part to claim from their corporate insurance.

2) MOH point on over servicing. Singapore has always pride itself to be comparable to the best in medical treatments in the world. Is MOH saying that the services is too much? Should we convert the a class to c class facilities at all restructured hospitals?

3) Over charging by doctors and medical establishments. By stating this point MOH should have already identified which doctors and medical establishments are over charging. Has MOH taken any action against them. Highly unlikely. By penalizing the patients for the over charging by doctors is similar to punishing by the victim of a bully so that he will be more careful in the future. Will the bully still continue to bully in the future? Yes because he is never punished and will think that what he is doing is right. Hence, will doctors stop over charging because of this change. I don't think so.

4) Overconsumption of medical services. Besides the points raised. One important point is that if there is no medical condition and if the tests and surgeries are done purely as preventive measures. The claims assessors should have rejected the claims according to the policy contracts and this will not have been a point to be raised. If the insurers are incapable of processing the claims according to the policy contract terms and conditions, why penalise all the other policyholders? Processing of claims is not just about speed but the accuracy of the claim. I used to train my claims assessors based on the value of FAIR.

F - Fast processing of all claims
A -Accurate processing of all claims with minimum errors
I - Integrity and unbiased processing of all claims
R - Reliability. All claims assessor must be knowledgeable and able to respond to any queries that clients may have.

REPLY

Dear X
Thank you for your comments. I see that you are a health insurance practitioner.

Let me answer your questions briefly.

1) I do not know whether the medishield insurers do or do not exercise their right to be the payer of last resort, i.e. insist that the patient claim first under the company's plan. Some working adults are covered under their company's plans but they are many who are not covered under their company's plan, or their coverage under the company's plan is limited in scope.

2) I believe that it is better for all restructured hospitals to serve only the subsidised patients (B2 and C). But it would be very difficult to make this change now.

3) MOH has the data to identify the hospitals and doctors that are overcharging and overservicing. But I suspect that they are not doing it. They like the patients to do it through the co-payment. But this strategy has not worked for three decades. This strategy has to change.

4) I agree with your point about rejecting of claims due to negative test results.

Let me make this summary. We have a messy and inefficient health insurance system. It is very costly to administer. They is confusion about the over lapping coverage and exclusions. I am quite disappointed about our 3M system (medisave, medishield, medifund).

I hope that the health minister has the wisdom to recognize the problem and the courage to take the correct steps to change the system. I am willing to help them, if they find my service to be useful.

Tan Kin Lian

Do we need to maintain the current level of spending on defense?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd - Do we need to maintain the current level of spending on defense?

45% of those who voted said that we can reduce the defense spending and still have a credible defense force.

41% said that we should reduce the defense spending and use the saving for healthcare, elderly and needy.

This makes a total of 86% in favor of reducing the defense spending.

The remaining 14% said that the defense spending should be maintained or increased.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=523

Will the US tariff on steel and aluminium lead to a trade war?

I asked this question in The Wisdom of the Crowd. - Will the US tariff on steel and aluminium lead to a trade war?

39% of those who voted said it will lead to a serious trade war.

27% said other countries will be able to adjust to the trade tariffs without serious impact on global trade.

18% said it will be contained and not have serious consequences.

15% said the US tariffs will be withdrawn within a year.

In summary, 39% predict disaster while 61% did not expect any serious consequences.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=524

What is the best way to buy life insurance?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - What is the best way to buy life insurance?

51% of those who voted said that they will buy life insurance only for protection and not for investment.

29% said that they will avoid all types of life insurance as an investment.

20% said that they will find an agent that they can trust.

Nobody said they will buy life insurance through a bank.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=525

You can vote on these issues in The Wisdom of the Crowd

Did the government floated a "test balloon" on the GST hike?

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

What is your opinion of the PAP ministers involved in the "test balloon" saga?

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

Will the "test ballon" saga in Parliament affect the votes at the next general election?

Give your vote in
www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg

The "test balloon" saga in the Singapore Parliament

Did the PAP float a test balloon on the GST hike?

Sylia Lim suggested that they did. The PAP ministers said they did not.

I believe the PAP ministers. I think they did not float a test balloon. I believe that the PAP did intend to hike the GST soon after this budget.

What made them change their mind? In my opinion, they were surprised at the budget surplus of $9.6 billion.

I said this in my speech at Hong Lim Park on 3 March 2018. I said that the finance minister must be sleeping. He must be incompetent and he was not aware of the surplus. I also asked whether the prime minister was also incompetent?

With this budget surplus, it was not tenable for them to hike the GST immediately. So, I think that they found the "solution" to announce a hike a few years down the road.

If I am correct, then the ministers are not honest and not honorable in hiding the real reason for this strange decision. Are they trying to hide an incompetency?

Hey, this is an opinion. I am not abusing any privilege of the right of free speech. if I am wrong, please tell me. Don't ask me for an apology, OK?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCRavQFYHw&t=1549s

Tan Kin Lian

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