Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Keeping patients safe

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Keeping patients safe

Holding doctors accountable for medical errors.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: The legal and medical professions are well regulated but not the financial. Why? there is something amiss despite there are so many evidences of malpractices. It is well known that the processes are not right and yet the regulator close their eyes to the rampant unethical practices by insurance agents and RMs and yet they advised consumers to open their eyes big big.
Many errant doctors and lawyers were hauled up in the past years and yet no errant insurance agent was reported. As pointed out before the population of unqualified insurance agents is as high as 99.5% and any time a stone is thrown it will land on an unethical agent.That is the kind of density of unqualified and unethical agents in our midst.
Has the regulator any vested interest?. Are the regulator's hands tied? Do they have to look over their shoulders?
I am sure the regulator knows that it is IMPOSSIBLE to make every consumers savvy enough to make informed decision. Even the insurance agents themselves are NOT savvy or have enough knowledge to advise, so how can they ever give good advice. This is why they push and peddle products like salesmen. I know of one local company that calls their agents SALES CHAMPIONS despite their disguise as financial consultants.They are super dupers.They are con salesmen like the koyok salesmen.
Accountability is the answer. Make the agents accountable for the processes, the way they approach the clients and their recommendations.
Alas , the regulator thinks otherwise. They think that providing education can make the consumers savvy.If consumers can become savvy by attending their course then it is fair that the consumers should have access to NO LOAD insurance and investment products.Why pay the agents for form filling or those crap presentation? They don't add any value.In fact they cause more damages to the financial life of consumers.
Please, do the right thing.

The Watchman; December 19, 2009 11:01 AM
Anonymous said...: if doctor practice their medical error on minster or MP or who are lawyer will come to an end or career.; December 19, 2009 12:57 PM
Anonymous said...: When Mr.TanKin Lian was running NTUC INCOME he had 2 goals, one to give the consumers good value for money and second was to take care of the agents' welfare so that every agent had equal chance and wealth distribution fairer and not like the current dog eat dog where disparity of earning is so great.
Market share was important but not important as to compromise the interest of the consumers. This should be the role of cooperative and not like the so called commercial pursuit which everyone knows it is a personal agenda to make someone look smarter than Kin Lian.
The insurance companies exist to provide products to consumers to meet their financial needs and NOT to enrich agents or to let some inferior person to prove their 'superior' mettle or to beat somebody.
As you can see ntuc is sliding into the commercial trap. The agents have become more greedy and unscrupulous and the company lost sight of its social role. Look at the products, they are all have dubious benefits and the greedy agents are used to con their own people who trust them. This is a sad day for the cooperative movement where accountability to the masses is lost and which has become a vehicle for some people to enrich themselves. The US banking industry is an example where the Ceos pay themselves huge bonuses despite getting bailout help from taxpayers' money.
It is time consumers and policyholders see through the ploys of this newly 'branded' outfit.; December 19, 2009 2:25 PM