What is easy money? This is money made easily, with little effort. And the saying goes, easy come easy go. Our govt’s revenue comes from many sources, and some can be easily classified as easy money. Let’s not breathe a word about the CPF. This is the people’s blood and sweat money that they made working for it.
Easy money are those like COE premiums, gambling taxes from the casinos and the Tote Board, ERPs, and to a certain extent, profits from sales of HDB flats. The value of these easy monies is quite substantial, in the billions or more annually. Can some of these monies be put to good use like looking after the healthcare of the senior citizens? No I am not asking for the whole chicken, may just a drumstick.
How much will it cost to provide some basic coverage in healthcare for the senior citizens? This can be defined, without being extravagant. Minimum basic healthcare/hospitalization need not be too costly. As it is a welfare scheme provided by public fund, no one is going to complain about no airconditioning, no pretty nurses at their becks and calls, no top notch doctors or surgeons to treat their half a million dollar condition. Just provide the basic medical care for those seniors that needed healthcare or have to be hospitalized, to let them recuperate in the hospital beds with some peace of mind, they will be treated with some dignity and will not empty all their savings or forcing their dependents to empty their savings.
This is a social obligation that the govt could and should provide to the senior citizens that have in one way or another contributed to the growth and prosperity of the nations. It is mean and heartless to expect the oldies to pay for their health insurance when they are out of work and living on whatever that is left of their savings. We can’t be thinking of robbing the oldies of their savings can we? How creepy can people be to think that the helpless and needy oldies are easy target for the taking? Do not touch their savings in their Medisave.
By providing basic healthcare/hospitalization to the oldies using easy money, the scheme can be self insured by the govt without resorting to any insurance scheme. The cost with limited coverage cannot be so prohibitive when carefully defined, and without being misery.
Where is the heart? Easy money, easy come easy go. Where have these easy monies gone to? Using easy money for this noble and important service will be well appreciated and a worthy cause to put them into good use. Stop having more designs on the oldies and their monies in their Medisave, or expecting their children to foot the bills. Not many are ministers and earning million dollar salaries and can keep on paying and paying.
Chua Chin Leng AKA Redbean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/