National Day Observance Ceremony Of The Public Transport Industry 2004

11 Aug 2004

By Mr Khaw Boon Wan , Acting Minister for Health

Venue: Toa Payoh Sports Hall

Speech By Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Acting Minister For Health And Senior Minister Of State For Finance At The National Day Observance Ceremony Of The Public Transport Industry 2004 On 11 August 2004 At 9.45 Am At The Toa Payoh Sports Hall

Union leaders and members of the

Public Transport Industry

A very happy National Day to you all

Last Year's Struggle

The last time we met as a group was about 15 months ago, in the midst of fighting SARS.  At the meeting, I remember that some of you had tried to avoid me, in case I could infect you.

The taxi drivers among you told me how your business had been badly affected.  Some said that you dreaded going home, facing your wives with your meagre earnings.

But more than the loss of income was a fear for your life. You worried if your next passenger would be a SARS patient. You began to look for signs of fever and nothing frightened you more than a cough from your back seat. You were torn between wearing a mask to protect yourself or facing the prospect of frightening away your customer. Some of you resorted to common sense and simply wound down the window.

It was not just taxi drivers.  Bus drivers too had a fearful time.  Some were initially even afraid of stopping outside Tan Tock Seng Hospital.  You feared our nurses more than the LTA inspector. 

After two taxi drivers were infected by their passengers, your worries and fear were magnified many times.

But after the initial shock, you proved more resilient than your counterparts in many other countries. Together with your employers, unions and associations, you worked out practical measures to protect yourself and your passengers and promptly put them into practice.

You organised yourselves to take temperatures of one another.  Never mind that not all took the temperature correctly. But gradually, you won back confidence to public transport and along with it, part of your usual earnings.

This Year's Harvest

Your resilience and cooperative spirit were replicated elsewhere in other industries by other Singaporeans.  As a result, we not only defeated SARS, we went on to overcome our economic downturn. 

So this year, we are in a completely different mood.  The economy is recovering steadily; new jobs are being created again.  Our sacrifices and the measures taken to see us through the downturn are gradually paying off.

Even Better Future Ahead

In parallel, you pushed on with developments in the public transport industry.

First, you set up the Singapore Taxi Academy to raise the training of taxi drivers to a higher level.

Second, three more taxi companies emerged to offer more choices for commuters.

Third, the MRT Circle Line is gradually taking shape.

In addition to all these, you have to help ensure security against terrorism.

Your fighting spirit during SARS gives us confidence that whatever the difficulties, you will be able to overcome. This gives us optimism that tomorrow we will see an even better Singapore.

Healthcare Anxiety 

I know that some of you are anxious about healthcare cost.  You worry that if you fall very sick and have to be hospitalised, you may not be able to afford the treatment, even at class B2/C level.  I know your concern.

In the last few months, I have spent a lot of energy thinking through this problem. I cannot promise you cheap and good hospital treatment. Good treatment does not come cheap. But with the heavy subsidy by the government, we can ensure that class B2/C hospital charges will be affordable to Singaporeans. The hospital bills after subsidy will not be cheap but if you have been saving regularly in your Medisave account, you should be able to afford them.

This would be the case for most of the hospital bills.  But I know your worry is whether you will be unlucky and be hit by a very large bill, larger than normal.  Fortunately, such very large bills are not common.  The best way to handle such low probability but very large bills is to insure against such a financial risk. 

MediShield was introduced in 1990 for precisely this purpose.  However, because MediShield has not been regularly adjusted, it has been losing its effectiveness.  I have therefore been studying how we can reform MediShield and along with it, help you stretch your savings in your Medisave to make them work better for you.

Expanding Medical Insurance

After several months of analysis, I am now fully convinced that we should allow medical insurance to play a bigger role in Singapore. 

We can encourage well-designed medical insurance plans to help Singaporeans pay for their larger hospital bills.  Medisave can be used to buy these medical insurance plans.  By subscribing to these well-designed insurance plans, you can then have a greater peace of mind.

Next month, I will share with Singaporeans more details of this idea.  We can then discuss and refine the idea to make it work for us.

Save for Old Age

For the idea to work well, I need your active cooperation. 

First, contribute regularly to your Medisave account.  This is very important. 

While hospital treatment is expensive, we do not get hospitalised every year.  In fact, every year, only one in ten Singaporeans are hospitalised.  They tend to be the older one.  As the Chinese saying go: "ren lao duo bing".

While most of us are well when young, we need to prepare for old age.  Start early, save a bit at a time, but do so regularly, every month.  Do not skip any month.  Over time you can save up to a substantial amount in your Medisave, out of which you can pay any hospital expenses and the premiums for a good medical insurance plan.

Healthy Lifestyle

Second, keep a healthy lifestyle. 

Although I said "ren lao duo bing", not all elderly are sickly.  In fact, the majority of the elderly are quite well: "lao dang yi zhuang", like SM Lee, "though old, but vigorous".  You too can be like that, if you keep fit from young.  Eat moderately and watch your waist line.  Many of you eat out in hawker centres, food courts.  Go easy on salt and oil.  Be kind to your body.

Exercise regularly.  I know many will claim lack of time.  But time is for us to plan.  Some taxi drivers told me that they would fit in some time for brisk walking just before or after their shifts.  Some also found a few minutes during the slack period immediately after the busy lunch hours for a bit of exercise in our well shaded parks.

So it is possible to combine regular exercise into your working life.  It can be done.  Just make it a habit, like your daily shower and brushing of teeth.  Then we can all look forward to many Happy National Days together.

Conclusion

In closing, let me on behalf of all Singaporeans who commute every day, thank you for looking after our welfare, bringing us from one point to another safely and on time.

Thank you.