69-year old retiree can’t afford $154 vaccination in Singapore

November 15, 2013 Leave a comment

69-year old retiree can’t afford $154 vaccination

November 14th, 2013 |  Author: Contributions

I am a 69-year-old retiree who recently had to walk away from medical treatment at a polyclinic because I simply could not afford the fee. It was a Hepatitis A vaccination that was recommended by an SGH doctor (I honestly don’t know why SGH couldn’t do it!) I found that it cost $77 per dose, and they had to administer two doses, amounting to $154. There was no subsidy, said the nurse. Not even for senior citizens. Not even for someone holding an MSW (Medical Social Worker) letter. Even the doctor, who was at first hesitant because he was merely responding to a brief note from the SGH physician, asking him to administer the shot, nodded to show empathy for the circumstances I was in and cognizance of Singapore’s high cost of living. And to think citizens are allowed the use of Medisave for Hepatitis B vaccination, but not A. Sadly, I walked away, wondering why Singaporeans — especially the elderly lot — had to be subjected to such deprivation of basic medical assistance when our Medifund kitty had a surplus of more than $600 million, according to statistics revealed by our trusted Mr Leong Tze Hian, an auditor, Wharton Fellow and alumnus of Harvard University and the United Nations University International Leadership Academy, in TRE pages recently. Even the MSW letter I was holding entitles me to waiver of only some of the drugs prescribed by the doctor, not all. And even then, the waiver is granted only after Medisave deduction. In other words, the 100% waiver indicated in the letter is a big ruse. Why, in heavens name, must they always resort to non-transparency in many things they do involving our own true-blue citizens? Even untruthfulness, indifference and apathy? Why can’t they come clean and say why, for instance, medicines must cost so much. If it is true that medicines are so expensive, why is it cheaper across the Causeway? Last year, I was at one stage suffering from flu. And despite four medical consultations — including one where I paid $40, I was still feeling lousy. So I went to see a private clinic doctor in JB. The female Muslim doctor (she was wearing a hijab by the way, which I’m 100% fine) asked me my age and occupation. And when she found I was a retiree, she charged me only RM10 ($4) for consultation and five different medications. Amazing, I thought! And believe you me, it took me only one week to recover, thanks to that JB doctor, who charged me $4!

Sad and bewildered

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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