PECKPOST
Hey. So this morn while my mum was fetching me to the gym, she started angsting about the removal of healthcare subsidies for foreign workers. It's an apt example, imo of how macro-policy, however practical can be rather brutal to the groups of people afflicted by it. Foreign workers, btw consist of yur maids, and mostly the construction workers building your buildings.
Recently the government's been announcing the reduction of healthcare subsidies of PRs and foreign workers because Singaporeans have been complaining that it's unfair that these pockets of people should get the same rates as them (they currently do). So heyho the government says we gonna reduce subsidies for PRs by 10% over 2 years and foreign workers completely by Oct 07. Instead for foreign workers they gonna recommend employers to buy em insurance!
Now my mum, who is a dentist at one of dem national healthcentres, said that the government has actually already fully removed the healthcare subsidies for foreign workers for any kind of treatment at specialist outclinics (aka national healthcentres) and polyclinics alike. That has not been reported in the news or media. Now is only Dec 06, no big insurance scheme is in place, and the foreign workers have already been hit.
Keeping in mind that foreign workers pretty much earn some of the lowest incomes in Singapore, and are probably susceptible to the most injuries (since most are in construction business), I can totally see where my mum's criticism is coming from. They are the one that need the subsidies the most! Moreover, for this kind of employment, how much do insurance do you think employers would be willing to pay? Jackshit duh. At the moment those that are already insured are insured for 5-10k max. Its like if you get one serious injury that's one hit KO over the limit.
To add a perspective from the ground, most of my mum's patients that are foreign workers have an abscess. The conditions at construction sites suck, they get infections. They don't know how to take care of wounds, it gets infected, and large amounts of pus collect. And they get this like 213473290429039 times in their careers. You take away their subsidies and that means they can't afford to drain their abscesses which is seriously gross and bloody disgusting.
And sometimes it just gets sad. My mum had a Myanmar dude who had contracted jaw cancer. Without the subsidies and with shitty insurance, he just couldn't afford the treatment. Even at the most basic treatment and operating plans, he just couldn't afford it. Basically to remove half of your jaw and create a denture for it is rather expensive. On the day he was scheduled to meet up with my mum again, he never showed up. And his boss said he'd probably have to let him go.
So there you go. Construction worker life = fucked, construction worker get injury = cb fucked, and construction worker get injury without subsidies = still cb fucked because he can't afford it. So government wants to save 30 million buckaroos for the country or screw up poor non-citizen lives even more, that is the question.
Hey. So this morn while my mum was fetching me to the gym, she started angsting about the removal of healthcare subsidies for foreign workers. It's an apt example, imo of how macro-policy, however practical can be rather brutal to the groups of people afflicted by it. Foreign workers, btw consist of yur maids, and mostly the construction workers building your buildings.
Recently the government's been announcing the reduction of healthcare subsidies of PRs and foreign workers because Singaporeans have been complaining that it's unfair that these pockets of people should get the same rates as them (they currently do). So heyho the government says we gonna reduce subsidies for PRs by 10% over 2 years and foreign workers completely by Oct 07. Instead for foreign workers they gonna recommend employers to buy em insurance!
Now my mum, who is a dentist at one of dem national healthcentres, said that the government has actually already fully removed the healthcare subsidies for foreign workers for any kind of treatment at specialist outclinics (aka national healthcentres) and polyclinics alike. That has not been reported in the news or media. Now is only Dec 06, no big insurance scheme is in place, and the foreign workers have already been hit.
Keeping in mind that foreign workers pretty much earn some of the lowest incomes in Singapore, and are probably susceptible to the most injuries (since most are in construction business), I can totally see where my mum's criticism is coming from. They are the one that need the subsidies the most! Moreover, for this kind of employment, how much do insurance do you think employers would be willing to pay? Jackshit duh. At the moment those that are already insured are insured for 5-10k max. Its like if you get one serious injury that's one hit KO over the limit.
To add a perspective from the ground, most of my mum's patients that are foreign workers have an abscess. The conditions at construction sites suck, they get infections. They don't know how to take care of wounds, it gets infected, and large amounts of pus collect. And they get this like 213473290429039 times in their careers. You take away their subsidies and that means they can't afford to drain their abscesses which is seriously gross and bloody disgusting.
And sometimes it just gets sad. My mum had a Myanmar dude who had contracted jaw cancer. Without the subsidies and with shitty insurance, he just couldn't afford the treatment. Even at the most basic treatment and operating plans, he just couldn't afford it. Basically to remove half of your jaw and create a denture for it is rather expensive. On the day he was scheduled to meet up with my mum again, he never showed up. And his boss said he'd probably have to let him go.
So there you go. Construction worker life = fucked, construction worker get injury = cb fucked, and construction worker get injury without subsidies = still cb fucked because he can't afford it. So government wants to save 30 million buckaroos for the country or screw up poor non-citizen lives even more, that is the question.
posted by dan at 8:08 PM
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