ELSON: This is what was published in the Straits Times in 2016 on the prevalence of persons in Singapore with disabilities:
“The prevalence in the student population (aged seven to 18) is 2.1 per cent, and that in people aged 18 to 49 is 3.4 per cent. The figure rises to 13.3 per cent for people aged 50 and above. These were in the foreword of the report for the latest Enabling Masterplan, a national blueprint for disability services, for next year to 2021.”
Now, in a matter of 2 years, the Ministry of Health says that 50 percent of Singaporeans above the age of 65 could be severely disabled?
That’s a fast change of tune.
How the MOH came up with this figure has never been backed publicly with concrete data.
Singaporeans must be a very special breed of people for us to have a severe disability rate above and beyond most other developed nations.
Bear in mind, it’s not just disability, but SEVERE disability.
In the United States, persons with disabilities made up 12.6 percent of the population in 2015, and growth is about 1 percent per year.
A bit closer to home, Australia reports that persons with disabilities make up 20 percent percent of its population.
But most persons with severe disabilities, according to the Health Ministry’s criteria, will be able to
Claim CareShield Life (or even ElderShield) payouts – for example, regarding personal mobility, only 4.4 percent require the use of a wheelchair.
Moving on to a developing nation like Bangladesh, we see that the “severe disability” figure has never crossed the 29 percent threshold per age group.
And, Singapore is supposed one of the top nations in the world when it comes to meeting the health needs of its citizens and achieving sustainable progress on health-related goals.
To meet the criteria of being “severely disabled” in order to qualify for CareShield Life (ElderShield) payouts, you must have 3 of these 6 conditions:
So, are Singaporeans an exceptional breed of people that are highly prone to severe disabilities in their later years, above and beyond other nations?
Why has the Health Ministry never released the findings its findings on this, as other developed nations (and even Bangladesh) have done, to justify a compulsory nationwide disability insurance?
Surely, to shove a policy down people’s throats, the least the government can do is justify its reason for the force-feeding?
And surely, with collected premiums standing at over S$3 billion and payouts so far amounting to about S$130, million, the MOH needs to justify CareShield Life compulsory with higher premiums and year-on-year increases in premiums paid?
READ: CareShield Life: Government has Failed to Justify Billions in Premiums Collected to Date
READ: ElderShield: A Scheme Aimed at Leeching Off Singaporeans that’s Likely to be Made Compulsory?
Missy
June 5, 2018 at 6:50 pm
David Bowie is a classic, i like all his songs during the old days.~
michael
June 8, 2018 at 8:35 pm
Nothing should be compulsory in this day and age…in fact nothing in life should be compulsory no matter now how good the intentions of the enforcer. Withholding CPF withdraw and keep shifting the goal post is simply not right. If your plans and deposit interest are so good, people will be putting more money into the CPF willingly, force is not necessary. Perhaps there are a group of Singaporean that may not be very discipline and may squander away all his CPF savings after he got the money, sure I agree there may be such people; but is that a good reason to therefore assumed that everyone will become just as insensible, silly and irresponsible? Surely not. I am sure that is not why the goal post kept moving further and further over the years. There are many lucky people in Singapore that are not too concerned about this because they have good income and young and not facing the same frustrations as those who had reached 55 and above. However age group you belongs, whatever your financial status, it should matters to you as a person, citizen and a “free” intelligent thinking adult. Why do we allow our gov tell us when, how and under what condition before we can take back our money?? Just like nobody should be made to drink milk for breakfast because the gov think milk is good, the same goes for all other things in life. If the gov knew smoking is bad, but still allow the people the choice to smoke or not, why then is CareShield be different? Those like me who dont want to participate should be able to opt-out. Looking at some of the figures mentioned, looks like this is another way the gov is digging the people for profit. Recently our 4th Gen Leaders are making lots of propaganda statements, one of which is ” we have to listen to our current generation of people”…that that effect. That actually made me laugh out loud when i read it. They are finally admitting that they have not been listening? Let all of us email, call, whatever.. the Gov, write to CPF and CareShield and just registered your displeasure about this insurance scheme. Tell them it is a ripoff. You dont want your gov to keep making money at your expense. Tell to scrap it immediately, refund the money. We have to start somewhere and at some point….let us all start now and sent a message to this gov and let them hear our voice, make it loud and clear…. and let see if they can hear us this time.