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First Deflation In 5 Years But Still No Savings On Food And Healthcare

Despite a strong Singapore dollar and falling oil prices, Singaporeans have said they have not noticed savings in areas such as food and healthcare.

While the Consumer Price Index showed an overall decrease, food inflation for November stemmed the slide, rising 2.9 per cent year-on-year and up from 2.8 per cent in the previous month.

This is despite oil prices driving down transport costs, and a strong Singapore dollar compared to regional currencies.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said food prices rose 0.2 per cent due to more costly non-cooked food items, and higher prices of regional food supplies and hawker meals.

F&B outlets Channel NewsAsia spoke to agreed, but cited other reasons too.

Said Mr Dilip Ghosh, owner of Urban Fairways Golf Cafe and Bar: “Essentially, the costs of food and drinks rise because I believe for our supplier, rental and manpower costs go up. So as a whole, all our costs increase.”

Rookery’s general manager, Mr Joshua Wee, said the two main cost drivers for his establishment were rent and labour. “We needed to invest in automation of some things, so that we do not have to pass back the high costs to the consumers,” he said.

Senior economist at Mizuho Bank, Mr Vishnu Varathan, said that although a strong Singapore dollar buffers against rising costs in the region, it cannot absorb the increased cost for local services in a tight labour market, among other volatile conditions.

He said: “If they are looking to see very rapid price drops in terms of food or any items they are consuming, that may not come through as quickly for three reasons. One, your labour costs may not be dropping. It may stabilise, but it may not drop as quickly, and businesses always need to build a buffer.

“Two, even if you get oil prices dropping, that may not fully offset other things such as your Causeway toll going up and hence food from across the Causeway becoming more expensive.

“Rentals also take a while to adjust, and in the meantime, hawkers may not be so willing to adjust their prices so quickly in case they get hit by a sudden increase in, say, oil prices, because certain things are volatile.”

Mr Varathan said that because of this buffering effect, the public may not feel the price drop immediately. Instead, prices are likely to continue rising in the medium term, just at a slower pace.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

December 25, 2014
54 Year Old Malay Man Charged For Sexual Attacks On Two Teenage Girls

A man was charged with a string of sex offences on Tuesday for alleged attacks on two teenage girls.

Mohd Ariffan Mohd Hassan, 54, is accused of two counts of raping a girl and two of molesting her. He is said to have first molested the girl when she was just 15, after confining her in a truck cabin in a forested area of Punggol in March 2009.

In June the following year he allegedly abused her twice at a flat. The two alleged rapes are said to have taken place in January 2010 and a year later.

He is also alleged to have molested another victim. who was under 14 at the time, by wrongfully restraining her in the same truck sometime between March and June 2010.

It is not clear how the victims are related to Ariffan.

Ariffan is represented by lawyer S. S. Dhillon.

The prosecution sought four weeks to finalise investigations.

Bail of $60,000 was offered and his case will be mentioned again on Jan 20.

If convicted of molesting a person under 14 and causing wrongful restraint, he could be jailed for between three and 10 years.

The maximum penalty for sexual penetration is 20 years’ jail; and for rape, 20 years and a fine. No caning will be imposed as he is over 50.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

December 24, 2014
Medishield Coverage Should Be More Comprehensive

By this time next year, the risk of financial catastrophe from large health-care bills will be much reduced for cancer patients.

Why? Simple: MediShield Life, which would have come into effect by then, will greatly increase coverage for cancer care. For outpatient chemotherapy, coverage would jump from $1,240 to $3,000 a month. Radiation therapy will also enjoy an increase, from $160 a treatment to $500.

Why did the Ministry of Health (MOH) decide to focus on cancer? Why not other diseases too?

The decision to expand coverage for cancer is unsurprising.

Cancer accounts for almost a third of deaths in Singapore and 5.9 per cent of all hospitalisations. Furthermore, cancer care and especially its costs are frequently raised as concerns.

The late senior minister of state for health Balaji Sadasivan, while undergoing treatment for cancer, remarked: “Cancer treatment can be very, very expensive. This is something our health system will have to deal with. It is not surprising if some patients have to sell their house.”

Cancer care has also been revolutionised by the advent of targeted therapies, biologics that target cancer cells at the molecular level. These medicines have three important implications for the way we finance health care.

First, in certain diseases such as breast and colon cancers, the results have been transformative, even for advanced disease. We are not talking about weeks or months of added survival but, in many instances, years of life, years of quality life.

This brings us to the second point, on toxicity. Because of the specific targeting, side effects are much reduced compared with conventional chemotherapy, which affects normal cells as well. Hence, many of the targeted therapies can and are prescribed on an outpatient basis. While some outpatient chemotherapy treatment can be covered, our health financing remains heavily inpatient-biased.

Third, the minimal side effects and continued “suppression” of cancer activity means the treatment regime continues for extended periods. Treatment cycles are no longer confined to 21- or 28-day periods – typical for conventional chemotherapies which have to be of short duration because of their toxic effect on the body. Instead, treatment can last for years. Increasingly, some cancer therapies are becoming more like drugs for chronic ailments such as heart disease and diabetes which need to be taken for life.

For example, trastuzumab (also called herceptin) is a treatment for some types of advanced breast cancer. It is recommended to be given “for as long as it keeps the cancer under control”.

In the United States, almost 90 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survive at least five years. Of those whose cancers have spread to other parts of the body, 25 per cent survive at least five years.

That amounts to many doses of trastuzumab, which, at about $4,000 a month, translates to very heavy costs for Singaporeans in the local context if insurance such as MediShield/ MediShield Life did not provide some cover for extended periods.

From next year, MediShield Life will step in. The rationale for increasing coverage for cancer is well-founded and the MOH deserves credit for expanding coverage in this area.

But what about Singaporeans with other diseases who may find themselves in similar predicaments? These diseases may not be as common as cancer but the advances in medicine can be just as transformative. Perhaps immune conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis? I know of at least one Singaporean who is living away from Singapore because her insurance overseas covers outpatient-targeted therapies for lupus.

What about multiple sclerosis, which is estimated to affect some 100 Singaporeans? It tends to hit women between the ages of 20 and 40, when many would be mothers and economically active.

MediShield Life cannot cover every disease comprehensively – there simply isn’t enough money – but we don’t need to stop at just cancer. Over time, transformative treatments even for less common diseases should be considered for specific inclusion in MediShield Life.

MediShield Life promises “Better Protection. For All. For Life”. As we move into 2015, Singapore’s 50th anniversary, let’s make this more and more a reality for every Singaporean.

[email protected]

Jeremy Lim, the writer, is head of the health and life sciences practice, Asia-Pacific, for global consultancy firm Oliver Wyman.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

December 24, 2014
Red Tape Undermines Objective Of Pioneer Generation Package

When I went to the clinic and opted to use the Pioneer Generation Package funding by the government, the clinic required me to sign a consent form, giving a lot of details.

I asked – what for?

The doctor explained that the consent form is to allow the doctors to provide details of consultations to MOH auditors when they come to the clinic to audit the claims.

Surely, if a patient is benefiting from the government funding, it should be spelled out in the law that the consent is implied. This will save a few hundred thousand people signing useless forms and time spent by doctors to explain useless matters.

Just because the Minister of Health is too lazy or too incompetent to issue a regulation about the “implied consent” or to get a law passed in Parliament, the whole country has to suffer from this useless burden and cost.

The doctor said that he had raised this issue with the Ministry of Health when the form first came out. They agreed “to look into the matter” but nothing was done for several months.

He now has to file the consent form and check with the patient each time, if they have signed the consent form. Instead of doing his work as a doctor, he now spends precious time checking forms! LOL!

What a useless person who now sits as the Minister for Health. What is the Prime Minister doing about it? Surely, they know that these are unnecessary work and cost which can be avoided.

Tan Kin Lian

*Article first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/kinlian/posts/780644632008191

Source: www.therealsingapore.com

December 24, 2014
Amnesty International – IS Using Captured Women As Sex Slaves

Captured Yazidi girls in Iraq are killing themselves to escape rape and torture at the hands of Isis militants holding them prisoner.

Hundreds of women and children were captured during the group’s bloody sweep through northern Iraq earlier this year and have since been trafficked as sex slaves , forced into marriage and imprisoned.

Victims who managed to escape told Amnesty International that many Yazidi girls killed themselves after losing hope of being saved.

A 20-year-old survivor, called Luna, said she was held with 20 girls as young as 10 in the Isis-controlled city of Mosul when they were told to dress up.

“One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes,” she added. “Jilan killed herself in the bathroom. She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful.

“I think she knew that she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself.”

Another woman, 27-year-old Wafa, said she and her sister attempted suicide while imprisoned in Mosul after the man holding them gave them the choice of marrying him and his brother or being sold as slaves.

“At night we tried to strangle ourselves with our scarves,” she told Amnesty. “Two girls who were held with us woke up and stopped us and then stayed awake to watch over us.

“When they fell asleep at 5am we tried again, and again they woke up and stopped us. I could not speak for several days after that.”

Relatives of girls who managed to escape fear that the trauma will never leave them, reporting panic attacks and depression.

The grandfather of a 16-year-old girl who was raped in Isis captivity said: “She is very sad and quiet all the time. She does not smile anymore and seems not to care about anything. I worry that she may try to kill herself, I don’t let her out of my sight.”

Amnesty interviewed 42 women and girls for its report, “Escape from Hell”, which is being released today.

It chronicles the torture, rape and sexual violence suffered by women from the Yazidi minority. Women who converted to Islam were forced to marry Isis militants and those maintaining their faith have been trafficked as sex slaves, abused and imprisoned.

Videos have emerged online of horrifying “slave auctions” of girls in Mosul and Isis members have boasted of the abductions, justifying them by calling Yazidis “apostates”.

Thousands of people from the religious minority, who are viciously targeted by the Sunni extremist group because they are considered heretics, were driven from their homes in Sinjar by the Isis advance in August.

Hundreds were killed in raids on towns and more died of thirst or starvation after fleeing up the remote Mount Sinjar.

Randa, a 16-year-old girl from a village near the mountain, was abducted with scores of her family members including her heavily-pregnant mother and given to a man twice her age who raped her.

“Da’esh [Islamic State] has ruined our lives … What will happen to my family? I don’t know if I will ever see them again.”

One woman called Alba, 19, was visibly pregnant with her second child when she was kidnapped with her son but Isis showed no mercy.

“I had my little boy with me and my pregnancy was very visible already but one of the guards chose me to be his wife,” she told Amnesty, adding that the man threatened to send her to Syria if she resisted.

Some Yazidi girls forced into marriage have reported being taken to the homes of Isis fighters’ families and even meeting their wives and children. Some received further abuse, while others made friends with their captor’s wives.

Several girls held by foreign fighters told Amnesty International their families helped them escape and one 13-year-old girl, who was held with her toddler sister, said her captor did not abuse them but instead sent them straight home to their family.

But even those escaping have a bleak prospect to return to, with the loss of dozens of killed or captured relatives, and home towns and villages overrun by Isis.

The trauma of survivors of sexual violence is further exacerbated by the stigma surrounding rape. Survivors feel that their “honour” and that of their families has been tarnished and fear that their standing in society will be diminished as a result.

Donatella Rovera, who spoke to more than 40 former captives in northern Iraq for Amnesty International, said Isis were using rape as a weapon in attacks “amounting to crimes against humanity”.

“The physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic,” she added. “Many of them have been tortured and treated as chattel. Even those who have managed to escape remain deeply traumatised.”

She called on Kurdistan Regional Government, UN and humanitarian organisations to ensure they were reaching everyone who needed support.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

December 24, 2014