5 Qs with: Tin Pei Ling and Nicole Seah

our free tabloid, today carried seperate face-to-face interviews with 2 of the youngest rookie pap and nsp candidates for marine parade grc, ms tin pei ling and ms nicole seah.

one of the questions asked was constituents above the age of 50 being most worried about, and their responses were:

Ms Tin: There are two things. One is in terms of the infrastrucure. The elderly are physically older, so the way they move is slower and they need a lot of care and attention. We need to make sure that their access to amenties and facilties is easy. In Macpherson we have done a lot of upgrading in the past years, and we have almost completed all the barrier-free access across Macperhson to help our elderly move around, interact with people and better use the facilities and services. The other thing is to help them cope with the cost of living. Many are retired or retiring. Especially those who are retired, they have no source of income. A lot of them come from lower income families so they are also struggling to make ends meet. So financially, it can be a challenge. I think these are the two areas of concern. It is not just in Macpherson, but nationally as well.

Ms Seah: After doing our rounds the feedback we have gotten is that old people are very worried about falling ill. I think they are starting to recognise that healthcare costs are getting more and more exorbitant in Singapore. As a result they are very afraid to fall sick and be a burden to their families. On top of that the rising cost of living is another issue. This eats into their daily expenses for their very staple necessities, like the food they need to eat at the hawker centres, things like that. So I think that they do feel the pinch that has arisen from the recent inflation and tax increases.

my comments:

i think both pei ling and nicole are equally on the spot with their answers because amongst the elderly, the risk of ill-health and falling ill is arguably, much higher than those who are in the younger age groups and there should be more infrastructure to allow freer access and mobility especially for those who are physically challenged.

and in terms of healthcare costs, the government's comprehensive 3Ms (medisave, medishield and medifund) framework is already in-place. on a more holistic perspective, there's severe disability coverage to consider as well which our government has rolled-out in september 2002 via the eldershield program and the eldershield reform in late 2007.

but on medishield, there is still a significant risk in terms of the coverage which is only up to age 85 and for those who have already lived passed their mid-80s will have slipped through the cracks if they have no other h&s plan to fall back on.

until there are further enhancements to the current medishield plan with a key one being lifetime coverage, my recommendation will still be to look into taking up an integrated shield plan from any of the 5 shield providers.

and if we were to narrow down to premiums and the risk of future affordability to pay premiums, perhaps the one shield provider with the most options is ntuc-income with the most comprehensive range of plans in their stable.