The mansion of Dr Michael Lim that was splashed across cyberspace and the media is a testament of the good life of our rich and famous. The scale of the mansion and the furnishing say that Dr Lim is very rich and living a very comfortable lifestyle that the heartlanders and even many private property owners could not dream of. This is the meaning of rich. Good for him and his success story.
In the 60s and 70s, the medical professionals were living well and many lived very well practicing their trades. The opulence in the class of Dr Lim’s was an exception though some did achieve that level of grandeur then. No medical professionals were complaining and people could afford doctors making home visits at very affordable fees.
And the best part, many medical services in govt hospitals and govt clinics could be had for free or for a song. There was no fear of unaffordable medical fees and no fear of getting sick and unable to pay for treatment. There was no fear of being bankrupt by a terminal disease. There was a nice balance between what the people can afford to pay for medical services and providing the medical professionals a good life. Many medical professionals could afford landed properties and the Mercedes Benzes.
Those were the good old days. Today we have medical insurances, the 3Ms and now the 4th M in MediShield Life and the people are still living in fear of being struck by a serious illness that they cannot afford to have. Even minor outpatient treatments are not cheap and unaffordable to many. There is no such thing as FREE! What on earth is that thing called FREE medical services?
Today, medicine and medical services are all about money and how much to pay, and about affordability. And many are asking how did we arrive at this state of affair when medical fees are so prohibitive that you need so many fanciful schemes and insurance to try to make them affordable but still unaffordable to many? What have these things got to do with opulence?
Have we progressed or regressed in this life and death services that the people cannot do without? Several decades back we were looking in astonishment and awe at the excesses and abuses of western medicine and medical services. Today we walked right into the same trap and try to outdo the western medical industry in everything, especially the prohibitive cost of medicine and medical treatment. We never seem to want to avoid the same pitfalls of the outrageous medical practices of the west. We simply aped everything, lock stock and barrel, fearlessly doing what the west have been doing.
Would the MediShield Life help to reduce medical cost and the anxiety of the people? Would medical cost be really affordable or be as affordable as our property prices under the same definition of affordability preached by the govt? Or would MediShield Life help to increase and spread the level of opulence?
How did our medical cost get to be so expensive?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com