GOH YIXUAN: I refer to your article: “Severely Disabled Seniors Denied Payouts: Doubts Cast on Intentions of ElderShield and CareShield Life Schemes”. Please see the picture attached. Even when someone has one year left to live as stated by doctors, they can’t claim ElderShield/CareShield Life payouts because they’re not “severely disabled” enough.
That’s fine. Maybe that person is life Steve Jobs, the kind that has cancer but still can move and travel around the world until his last days. But then what’s the point of CareShield Life? At least if the money remained in our Medisave we could use it to offset hospital bills.
(Ed’s note: CareShield Life premiums will automatically be deducted from your Medisave accounts.)
And don’t forget, when you die all your CPF money goes to your next-of-kin or nominees. In cash. The government does not get to keep any of it.
But with CareShield Life, the government takes more than S$200 million from all Singaporeans CPF every year, when you estimate that everyone pays S$200 in premiums per year, and there are about 1 million paying Singaporeans. And the premiums are going to increase every year. (the total Singaporean + PR population stands at 3.5 million, so I project based on age range)
The Health Minister, Gan Kim Yong, says the excess money collected will be used to maybe offset premiums CareShield Life premiums in the future. But seeing how this government always shift the goalposts, I hope the next Health Minister doesn’t go and anyhow hantam bolah, just like how Malaysia gets a new PM and suddenly no more HSR.
I just have this feeling that CareShield Life is another way to take more from Singaporeans, instead of giving back to us. I hope I am proven wrong.
