FEBRUARY 23, 2012
FEB 23 — Last Sunday, two days after the Singapore Budget announcement, I reached the 65th year of my life. I went through Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s list of “goodies”. Plenty this year went to older Singaporeans and the lower-income but alas, not much of it applied to me.
The special employment credit to help attract and retain workers older than 50 is only for those earning up to S$4,000 (RM9,600) a month. Strike One.
The minister has also raised Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions for those aged 50 to 55, 55 to 60 and 60 to 65. For people like me — those who are above 65 and continue to work — there is nothing.
Why not raise the interest rates on money with the CPF board? At present, balances with the CPF are paid 2.5 per cent per annum for money in the ordinary account and 4 per cent per annum for Special, Medisave and retirement accounts.
With inflation last year at over 5 per cent, CPF contributors are in danger of seeing their savings eroded (even though granted, putting money in the bank is even worse with savings accounts earning less than 0.5 per cent in most cases).
As most CPF contributions are in our ordinary accounts, perhaps paying 4 per cent across the board would be more welcome.
The earned income relief, however, is most welcome — if one is still working and drawing a salary — with such relief being doubled for those between 55 and 59 and going up to S$8,000 for those 60 and above.
While the silver housing bonus of S$20,000 and a similar amount for the enhanced lease buyback scheme are safety valves to unlock the value of one’s housing board flat, I hope to remain in my comfortable five-room flat, at least for the foreseeable future.
As the minister acknowledges, health costs is one of the biggest concerns of the elderly, and to be fair there has been considerable thought put into addressing the issue.
Expanding our healthcare service with the addition of hundreds of hospital beds, I hope, will ensure that there is enough capacity should there be a need for hospitalisation.
HEALTH INSURANCE FOR OVER-60s?
Tharman has also promised to “improve access to polyclinics and introduce new models of care, such as Medical Centres that provide specialist outpatient services in the community”.
Hopefully, these will be affordable as it will be of little use to the majority if they are beyond reach in terms of expense.
Here, the 20 to 50 per cent subsidy for the middle class in community hospitals should be a salve, that is, if costs do not go up higher and erode the subsidy.
Why not provide some kind of health insurance for those above 60?
At present, most of us have to buy our own health insurance. Perhaps the government could augment one’s own insurance with a plan of its own.
Yes, there is a one-off top-up of MediShield of between S$50 and S$400 but will that be enough considering the high cost of medical care and medicine these days?
The government has said it will increase the payouts from Medifund and enhance MediShield but with higher premiums. But more needs to be done to contain costs.
These lead to the high cost of medicine and pharmaceuticals, including generics, in Singapore. Quite a number of my friends are now going across the Causeway to buy cheaper pharmaceuticals.
At present the government absorbs GST for Class B2 and C patients in our acute hospitals and plans to extend it to subsidised patients in the long-term care sector, to include nursing homes and a range of home-care services.
But in the first place, why do we have to pay GST for medical care and medicine — effectively, be levied a tax when we fall ill?
For sure, the government appears to have taken quite a big leap in looking into the concerns of the elderly and the lower strata of our society.
More, as always, can be done. — Today
* Conrad Raj is Today’s editor-at-large.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
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