Have alternative NS for new citizens, PRs

May 12, 2012

I SUPPORT the views of Dr Leong Chan-Hoong ('Bridge the foreign-local gap with NS'; Wednesday) and would like to add a suggestion.

Health warnings on cigarette packs signal moral progress, not 'nannying'

May 2, 2012

DR ANDY Ho's commentary ('Lessons on smoking from the nanny state'; last Saturday) claims that health warnings on cigarette packs are paternalistic in the sense of 'nudging' individuals to stop smoking, and are founded on an undesirable premise that people are not assumed to behave rationally.

[Such a poor summary of Dr Ho's article!]

Firm dollar ineffective against real inflation

Apr 25, 2012
TODAY
Letter from Teo Hoon Seng

WITH headline inflation up again, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is expected, again, to use foreign exchange policy to combat it. At some point, one has to wonder how effective, if at all, this has been.

To cite some daily examples, the papaya I used to buy at S$1 now averages S$2; a small pack of vegetables that used to retail at 60 cents at FairPrice is now 69 cents; a brand of peanut butter that cost S$7.70 six months ago is now S$10.15.

The list goes on. And these do not include items repackaged in smaller quantities but sold at the same or slightly higher prices.

The MAS should consider using the good, old-fashioned interest rate tool.

Not only would this bring some relief to long-suffering pensioners, who receive next to nothing for their savings, it should go some way towards cooling our property market, where prices have been exacerbated by our monetary policy.

If inflow of hot money is a concern, there are ways to pre-empt it, such as prohibiting the parking of such funds in an interest-bearing account.

[A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Yes, one way to combat inflation is to raise interest rates... if the problem is over demand. If demand is overheating your economy, then you raise interest rates to slow down spending, and at the same time encourage savings. The high interest rates also help to ensure that your savings do not lose value while sitting in the bank.

But, here is the problem.

There are 1.2 billion people in China who has just started to get a little rich. They are eating better food, eating more food, using more modern gadgets, needing more electricity, travelling abroad on holidays, buying more cars and more consumer goods. All these means more raw materials are being sold to China, and all those goods needs to be transported to China, so fuel prices goes up, transport costs goes up, and your 60 cents veggies now cost 70cents. China eats more peanuts. Your peanut butter costs more because the prices of raw peanuts have gone up and the cost of transporting the final product to you have gone up.

How will raising interest rates help?

Even if we raise interest rates and somehow people decide that it makes more sense to save the money, cut back on spending, and don't buy as much (which is what higher interest rates are supposed to do), it'll just mean that what you don't buy will just go to China or somewhere else where it is wanted.

And higher interest rates means higher cost of borrowing, which means higher investment costs, which will curb investment in new machines or factories or shops and that in turn will curb business and the economy might slow down or even shrink. And with high interest rates, the projection is that the economy should shrink. So raising interest rates now is just silly.]

REPLACING MCs

Apr 27, 2012

Replace MCs with honour system


I AM a doctor in a public primary health-care institution, and am currently on a six-week attachment at a hospital in San Francisco to learn some of their best practices. My hosts here have heard many good things about Singapore and its health-care system and are as keen to learn from me as I am from them.

Rationale for continued immigrant influx flawed

Apr 28, 2012
Todayonline
Letter from Andrew Teo Neng Wee

I READ the report "Which path to take?" (April 25) with interest. However, I spotted two fallacies in the argument for more immigrants.

Firstly, the National Population and Talent Division stated that by 2030, without new citizens and the total fertility rate remaining at 1.2, there would be 2.1 working-age citizens to each elderly citizen.

Hard to forget - Japanese Occupation 1942

31 Mar 2012

'My grandfather was in the middle of dinner with his family when he was taken away. My grandmother never spoke again.'

Hard for ageing siblings to care for mum

Mar 31, 2012

MY MOTHER is 90 years old and has been ill since April 1993. She suffers from severe osteoporosis, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and, lately, severe bleeding from stomach ulcers.

For 15 years, my siblings and I have been paying her medical bills, which add up to a significant sum. My mother has no income, no inheritance and no insurance. All she has are her six children, who give her an allowance every month to ensure that she leads a meaningful life without being placed in a home.

Our repeated efforts to seek government assistance have failed. For instance, our application for assistance for an expensive bone-growth drug called Forteo in April 2007 was turned down.

At the end of the following year, we sought assistance to pay her hospital charges. This was rejected as well.

Nonetheless, I have the highest praise for Changi General Hospital's doctors, nurses, and pharmaceutical and administrative staff, from the top officer to the lowest-level staff.

In our most recent application for Medifund last month, I again highlighted that my siblings and I are now retired and find it increasingly difficult to maintain our mother's medical and daily expenses. My monthly annuity payment of $400 goes entirely to my mother. My sister's contribution is just as stiff.

While I am pleased that the authorities are considering our application for financial aid somewhat differently this time, I am still left wondering why they have chosen to reject some form of assistance for recent expenses.

Although we are deeply grateful that they are now considering some future subsidy, we wonder if help could have been rendered earlier when we sought, and needed, it.

Patrick Low

[This is not going to be the usual rant. In fact, it's not a rant but support for the writer and I think more can be done.

For a start, I think the govt should extend free or highly subsidised basic healthcare to citizens born before 1930. There are not many of them, and all would have contributed to nation building in some way or the other. These people would be 82 years old today and if they are still alive, would not have much CPF at retirement, if at all. (They would have reached 55 yrs of age in 1985 or earlier, and would not have had enough time to build up any kind of CPF.)

But the healthcare should be basic and not too expensive. an expensive bone-growth drug like Forteo should not be covered. In 2007, the patient would have been 85 years old, with multiple illnesses since 1993. how much improvement in her quality of life would Forteo have provided? With that consideration, Forteo should be an elective treatment.

Palliative care in SG is still not very good. A person with that much suffering should be provided good pain control which may include opiates (like vicodin).