Health insurance for an aging population

There is a school of thinking that the state should not provide health care for the aging population, as this would be too costly and, due to limited resources, this is best left to the private market.

I disagree with this argument. With limited resources, it is important that the resources are used efficiently and not wasted. The private market allocate these resources to those who can afford to pay, but it is likely that the limited resources will be used wastefully, especially as the final allocation is also also determined by the profit earned by the medical profession.

If health care for the elderly is provided or paid by the state, there will be control over the unnecessary medical treatment, as they would be disallowed by the state. Private individuals are not able to know what is necessary or not, but the medical experts working for the state would be in a better position to make this type of decision on the optimal use of the state resources.

Even in America, the health care for the elderly is borne largely by the state. There is a need to prevent excessive consumption of health care by the elderly, but this is a challenge that has to be faced and overcomed. Pushing the problem to the private market does not solve it, as it will lead to worse outcomes.

Tan Kin Lian

Unfair application of exclusion

A policyholder took a travel insurance policy. He met with an accident and lost a tooth. He required immediate treatment overseas and follow-up treatment in Singapore. He submitted a claim for the dental expenses. He was told that his travel insurance policy excluded "all dental expenses".

This is an unfair application of the exclusion. The exclusion was intended to exclude claims for treatment due to poor dental health, but should not (in my view) be applied to dental treatment arising from an accident.