ST July 26, 2009 100,000 lack MediShield

ST July 26, 2009
100,000 lack MediShield
NTUC aims to get them covered; urges husbands to pay their wives' premiums
By Mavis Toh

Women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

ABOUT 100,000 women in Singapore do not have MediShield insurance coverage and risk having to shoulder hefty medical bills.

They are mainly housewives with no Medisave savings.

Describing this as a significant number, National Trades Union Congress deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob said on Saturday that these women and their families would face a big burden.

Women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. Men on average live up to 77 years and suffer eight years of disability.

'But even as we live longer and need more health care, we have lesser means to pay for them,' she said at a forum organised by NTUC Women's Development Secretariat to raise health awareness among non-working women.

She noted that such women are not covered either due to 'pure ignorance' or when their coverage lapses over time. NTUC intends to reach out to this group and has appointed 90 women 'MediShield ambassadors' to encourage women to sign up.

Pamphlets, posters and a video promoting MediShield through cartoons and simple narration were also launched at the NTUC Centre to help Singaporeans understand the scheme better.
Madam Halimah and guest- of-honour Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan both urged husbands to pay the MediShield premiums of their non-working wives.

MediShield, operated by the Central Provident Fund Board, is a low-cost catastrophic illness insurance scheme. It is designed to help with large hospitalisation bills for the treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisation at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.
It has a maximum coverage age of 85. Medisave can be used to pay the premiums.

Older women now depend heavily on their family to pay for the cost of their acute care. Only 6 per cent of them use their own Medisave while 65 per cent depend on their children's.

Celestia

Today I finally got the keys to my rental apartment... It's a studio apartment. And it's so tiny, I feel that it's only half my 4 room flat. Anyway good to keep me under control from reckless buying. Shall upload some pix after i'm settled in!

For sale!

My friend is selling the following, anyone interested email me at roserina@yahoo.com .


1) Brand New SONY 40' FULL HD TVModel : KLV-40S550A
Selling off at $1100 to $1200 the TV.
Retail is S$ 1,699.00 *, comes with one year warranty
http://www.sony.com.sg/product/klv-40s550a


2) Brand New Digital camera Nikon S220 selling at $250
Retail is $329, comes with one year warranty.

Lack of blog posts

I really wana blog more but I have 2 obstacles nowadays:

1) Blogspot is not reliable. I either cannot upload my pictures, or I totally cannot write a blog post with words.

2) I don't have the software to download pix from my hp to the laptop. Plus, it only has bluetooth whereas my laptop only has infra red.

How how.. Maybe I should start a new blog somewhere else. I wonder if livejournal is better?

Per Hourly Rate

How much are you worth per hour? Recently I have a couple of my friends complain of having poor salary and/or long working hours. Sucky bosses too. Do you have a higher absolute amount of salary or a higher per hourly rate? I ever heard of someone tell me that the cleaner auntie has a higher per hourly rate than him.

Who doesn't want both... but it probably comes with the price of working harder and/or longer. Press on!

Clearing the Mess

Trying to clear my shelves for more space. Feels like CNY spring cleaning. It was so dusty... Was sneezing away while slogging... but now I have extra slot of space!!! Finally!

Ah Beng's Birthday

First time at the Mint Museum's Restarant at the basement. The food was pretty good (except for Grace's Aglio Olio). We are supporters of the Mint Museum - cuz of a good experience with the boss of the place.

Best lychee martini in town that I've tried so far.

China Bag

Got a forwarded email with the following pix. Not sure of the source though. Thought it was quite interesting.


* LV China Bag

* China - China Bag

It kinds of look the same. But for some reason the LV one looks much better. Is it really of better quality, or is it that logo that makes the difference? Maybe it's the model and how the outfit is styled.

Shape Run 09

OMG, Shape Run is coming and I'm not prepared. Last year I missed the run cuz I caught a cold. Hope this year I'm not just "buying" the running jersey.

I shall aim 10k in 75min -_-" (it's a terrible timing but it's already a big achievement based on my current fitness level).

Green toe nails.

Of a weird observation I made. Saw a lady who painted only her big toes a shade of lime green (with nail art). And the big toe nails are significantly longer than her other toe nails.

She looks freaky. (Of course, everyone has their own ideas on what looks good...)

Mellben Crab

Had my first dinner at Mellben Crab at Ang Mo Kio branch. It is gooood.. but tad expensive. A meal of crab bee hoon, chilli crab, fried man tous and 3 other dishes plus drinks cost us about $300+ for a group of 8.

Overate again. How to detox?!

Help!

I've been trying to upload pix to do blog post, but I can't. Anyone knows how I can troubleshoot?