Letter of Guarantee..

[Nisa]

I am reading feedbacks in the forum about such letters....
In my mind, I only got questions like "I don't have insurances, and only have my pathetic medisave, no savings, then what is going to happen to me? "

A family member recently became quite ill, and his medical bill came up to close to 70,000. How am I supposed to come up with that type of money? :dunno:

 

[jsbn]

Goodness me. All the best and stay composed under any circumstances especially in this time of need where the last thing u'll need would be signing things blindly.

Have u consulted a medical social worker on this issue? I'm afraid I'm as equally helpless like u when it comes to money so I can't really help.

 

[deckard]

quickly go to your MP.

 

[Nisa]

Goodness me. All the best and stay composed under any circumstances especially in this time of need where the last thing u'll need would be signing things blindly.

Have u consulted a medical social worker on this issue? I'm afraid I'm as equally helpless like u when it comes to money so I can't really help.

Err sorry, I meant if the same situation happened to me, how am i going to pay for such bills?

I can consult a medical social worker? honestly, when I saw the situation, and i think of the medical bills that will come, i rather die.

 

[Lmodel]

Firstly, check if that family member is covered under any insurance. It is best if he/ she got himself/ herself covered with the hospitalization coverage. There is still medishield (if no cancellation is made) and lastly medisave (can offset with any of the immediate family members) which could offset quite a fair bit of the bills.

Approach the hospital social worker on this issue on the outstanding.

Usually, they will access the family and financial situation before working out an instalment plan with the hospital for repayment.

Hope it helps.

 

[zekai]

Err sorry, I meant if the same situation happened to me, how am i going to pay for such bills?

I can consult a medical social worker? honestly, when I saw the situation, and i think of the medical bills that will come, i rather die.

yes there are medical social worker that can help lessen the bill by by getting medifund to help. every hospital have.

still buy some simple hospitalistion insurance like medishield, aia healthshield etc for your basic coverage 1st. these uses cpf medisave so you dun need cash 1st.

got more money than buy more insurance la.... of cos must keep fit.

 

[Nisa]

When he fell ill, I called up medishield to ask about claiming. The person actually told me that he can wipe out his whole medisave account, and claim about 50,000 a year for medishield. Adding up what i have in my medisave and my medishield, it might only be good enough for this round, what will happen if i have a relapse?


Any one who wish to insure, has to be in reasonable good health and no major illness. I am already not in this group. They would only insure against my death, which make it much cheaper to be dead isn't it?

 

[Deadpoet]

Err sorry, I meant if the same situation happened to me, how am i going to pay for such bills?

I can consult a medical social worker? honestly, when I saw the situation, and i think of the medical bills that will come, i rather die.

Thank god you cleared it up. Good that it's a hypothetical question.

Well, take care of yourself, don't get sick.

Sad to see such a rich country not having universal healthcare for it's citizen.

 

[jsbn]

Thank god you cleared it up. Good that it's a hypothetical question.

Well, take care of yourself, don't get sick.

Sad to see such a rich country not having universal healthcare for it's citizen.

Well, we are rich. But really the state can only do so much.

Ultimately, ur health, ur body and stuff abt urself... Its still the best way to sniff out the best insurance tailormade to suit urself and ur budget.

Kinda like a... the choice between getting a tailored suit vs one that's mass produced (hit & miss affair).

 

[westwest2]

Well, we are rich. But really the state can only do so much.

you are rich...but not everyone else...

 

[night86mare]

Thank god you cleared it up. Good that it's a hypothetical question.

Well, take care of yourself, don't get sick.

Sad to see such a rich country not having universal healthcare for it's citizen.

Look at what the NHS did to the UK.

Then think again before making such statements. I'd rather pay out of my ass for treatment then bleed to death because there aren't enough doctors and nurses to go around, and I never got to see one in time.

These days, the younger generation needs to know that it is a reality that s h i t happens and they should insure themselves medically other than what the government does for you with their schemes. In the past medical coverage was pretty good, but times change.

 

[waileong]

I am reading feedbacks in the forum about such letters....
In my mind, I only got questions like "I don't have insurances, and only have my pathetic medisave, no savings, then what is going to happen to me? "

A family member recently became quite ill, and his medical bill came up to close to 70,000. How am I supposed to come up with that type of money? :dunno:

What is your question? If you have no money, then you have no money.

The simple answer is, most hospitals will allow you to pay by instalments.

 

[mlwang]

Well, we are rich. But really the state can only do so much.

Ultimately, ur health, ur body and stuff abt urself... Its still the best way to sniff out the best insurance tailormade to suit urself and ur budget.

Kinda like a... the choice between getting a tailored suit vs one that's mass produced (hit & miss affair).

The State can do much more, they are unwilling to do so. They rather invest in other countries via JV industrial park, overseas propereties etc, than the health of its citizens.

The State want to outsource its medical liabilities to pte insurance, that is why we now buy medishield and eldershield from insurance companies instead of cpf, because the States want us to believe that pte insurance companies will cover us more. Why can pte insurance companies cover us more, because the State wants us to believe that the pte insurance companies can invest our money better, and get the return better than the State own investment arm.

Hospitals have privatised, they got less subsidies from the State, consultation fee went up after GST increase, and no reason was given, Anti-profiteering committee also have no say, cos it is "up to market forces."

The State want to let the market forces determine the up and downs of medical costs. Medicine cost 2x as much compared to Malaysia,why? because of market forces, supply and demand, the drug companies and hospitals are exploiting us, Vitamins and supplements cost much cheaper in USA than in Singapore. When the medical costs go up, the cost of medical insurance will go up, and the consumer will pay more. We dont have a choice, because of "market forces".

It is very difficult to get help from social worker, they will look at the financial status of the WHOLE family, if you son/daughther is working and have HDB flats, they expect your son/daughters to help you first, before the State help you. The state will not care the financial obligations of your son/daugters, eg children's education, mortgages.

Morale of story: Buy term insurance when you are young and cost is low. Dont wait.

Cover more than 250K if you have history of family crtical illness. One of my family members spent 100K (not kidding) for a critical illness, we have to get the MP to have his company cover his medical expense. If there is a relapse, we will face with financial difficulties, though we are better off than a lot of Singaporeans, all the family members will be real broke if we want to cover another 100K of medical expenses, we have to sell our flat away.

The heartlander saying is true, "Puah Beh Dio Ai Si", if you are sick, makre sure you die.

I think if you are sick, make sure your family is really poor, so that you will get aid easily.

If you are middle income, neither rich or poor, it will be a hard time.

 

[night86mare]

It is sad when people talk like it's easy to give free health service:

Britain shamed by NHS death rates

Cancer Patient's death sentence

NHS 24 faces 200,000 pound death claim

Read, then think again. Easier said than done, so go on and be armchair critics, it disgusts me, that's all.

 

[mlwang]

It is sad when people talk like it's easy to give free health service:

Britain shamed by NHS death rates

Cancer Patient's death sentence

NHS 24 faces 200,000 pound death claim

Read, then think again. Easier said than done, so go on and be armchair critics, it disgusts me, that's all.

I think we are not asking for FREE medical service, we want AFFORDABLE medical service, which IMHO I believe the govt can play a more active role, rather than letting the private companies take over. Some things must have state control, eg transport, utilities, medical.

 

[night86mare]

I think we are not asking for FREE medical service, we want AFFORDABLE medical service, which IMHO I believe the govt can play a more active role, rather than letting the private companies take over. Some things must have state control, eg transport, utilities, medical.

Same thing.

How affordable is affordable? What is affordable for the CEO for a large company is different from what is affordable for the old woman picking cardboard boxes on the street.

I agree that certain things need state control - defense, utilities. Not medical; healthcare is an industry where costs are high like it or not, to put it blatantly it is unfair to force higher taxes onto everyone. Admittedly taking good care of your health doesn't guarantee a problem-free life healthwise, but a person who's 100% ok, paying for the person who smoked his way into lung cancer - you really think you want to be the former person?

You really think the nation's people, are ready to do that?

There are people who are not happy about immigration officers not smiling at them; if they are healthy and there is an announcement that taxes will go up, because the government has decided to subsidize medical costs for everyone alike (even though subsidies ARE in place, just do a short comparison between private and public hospitals, you'd see what I mean, do some reading up).. What do you think their reaction would be?

There are better ways of doing it - subsidies for the people who REALLY need it. A broad stroke to just reduce health costs across the board strikes me as ridiculous and a plausible breeding ground for further inefficiency and a good driving factor to reduce the population of healthcare workers.

When I was reading up on the problems in the NHS a while back, you should see the circus stories that Britain healthcare workers had to face because of the "free" healthcare. I think you'd agree with me that cutting costs across the board will lead to similar situations not unlike the scenes (e.g. Mercedes Benz driving people going to free clinics, rofl) of ugly Singaporeans that you see today.

 

[zcf]

It is sad when people talk like it's easy to give free health service:

Britain shamed by NHS death rates

Cancer Patient's death sentence

NHS 24 faces 200,000 pound death claim

Read, then think again. Easier said than done, so go on and be armchair critics, it disgusts me, that's all.

Healthcare is 'financial catastrophe' for millions

SICKO, Michael Moore's new film, reveals the terrible healthcare decisions that some Americans have to make. For example, one man stitched up a gash in his own knee because professional care would be too costly.
But the World Health Organization says people in poorer countries have to make similar decisions far more regularly, and the impact is often devastating. WHO researchers studied 89 national surveys of domestic spending and found that worldwide, 150 million households suffer "financial catastrophe" each year due to healthcare costs.
“150 million households suffer financial catastrophe each year due to healthcare costs”
The biggest impact is in Brazil and Vietnam, where 10 per cent of households each year are affected. Families in richer nations also suffer: rates for Switzerland and the US exceed 0.5 per cent (Health Affairs, DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.4.972). In each case the severity of the problem is linked to how much people have to pay for treatment relative to public funding.
Government-run healthcare systems, such as the UK's National Health Service, may be one answer, though many poorer nations cannot afford to implement them, the researchers say.

Poor quality help may be still better than no help at all or being hopeless, so NHS is not really that bad, just that too many people abuse the system. :sweat:

 

[night86mare]

Healthcare is 'financial catastrophe' for millions


Poor quality help may be still better than no help at all or being hopeless, so NHS is not really that bad, just that too many people abuse the system. :sweat:

Which is why I say, don't make it free/low-cost for everyone.

It's definitely not easy, but perhaps a structured system, with like, severity versus monthly income will help.

And of course, Singaporeans will have to help themselves, I see people who just blow their monthly income once they get it, whether on lenses or other frivolous things that sometimes, they don't really need.

What happened to saving for the good ol' rainy days? Money breeds money, don't forget that.

 

[mattlock]

oh god here we go again....

 

[mattlock]

instead of being so negative about universal healthcare (the NHS is a noble endeavour, you hear lots of bad stories about it but there's alot of good too, my friend works as a doctor there), let's see what we can learn from it. Canada has a good system, why do you just have to pick on the NHS?

I'd like to point out that our healthcare system is pretty decent (compared to america where yes I've heard worse stories about people who try not to get into the hospital due to money...one guy got knocked over by a car, and when the medics came he just told them not to bring him to the hospital because he had no money, so he forced himself up and limped off)

Insurance is very important and people should be made aware of that