China is setting in place a social safety net for its 1.3 billion people, as reported by Xinhua news agency. (See article below) In light of the economic crisis, the ageing population and Singaporeans facing retirement problems in terms of finances, do you think Singapore should also institutionalized such a safety net for its citizes, particularly when we have so much more wealth, a smaller population and a less corrupt bureaucracy than the Chinese?
China draft law of social insurance draws nationwide debate
BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — China’s draft law on social insurance, which aims to create a universal safety net for all the country’s 1.3 billion people, has fueled nationwide debate since it was opened to public comment last December.
Over a 50-day time span ending Feb. 15, the country’s top legislature had received a total of 70,501 suggestions and proposals, the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee said in a statement Thursday.
The proposals, written on the NPC website by netizens or sent to the top legislature by letter, were from people all over the country, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the statement said.
The social insurance draft, which underwent its second reading by the NPC Standing Committee last December, specifies a common right for citizens, urban and rural alike, to pay premiums and enjoy old-age pensions and insurance for medical care, work injuries, unemployment and childbirth.
Many netizens agreed that the law is urgently needed as the government strives to expand domestic consumption in the face of the international financial crisis.
“I believe domestic consumption will increase if people don’t have to worry about old age and expensive medical fees,” an anonymous netizen wrote on the NPC website.
China has established several policies concerning social welfare since 1984. By 2008, about 219 million people have pensions and about 317 million have basic medical insurance. An additional 124 million have unemployment insurance, 138 million have work injury insurance and 91 million have childbirth insurance.
Fu Yan, a migrant worker employed by a Beijing household management company, said both she and her husband do not have any insurance. “I didn’t know anything about insurance when I signed a contract with the company. All I wanted then was a job,” said 28-year-old Fu, who is from southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
“There are a lot of migrant workers like me. It’s OK now since I am still young, but I do worry about the future. I definitely hope the law could help us have insurance, like pension and medical insurance,” she said.
To address the concerns of migrant workers, the social insurance draft law allows Chinese citizens to pay pension premiums in one place and draw money in another, if they migrate to other cities or provinces. This stipulation is particularly significant as the country has a much more mobile population than in the past.
The draft also determined that a new rural medical system, in which farmers and governments raise funds together, would be included in the medical insurance plan.
Meanwhile, governments will cover medical insurance expenses for citizens who live on low-income subsidies, have serious disabilities or are older than 60 years, the draft said.
The draft also highlights more efficient fund management. Governments at municipal, provincial and the state-level should encourage and support the public’s participation in supervising insurance funds. Any individual or organization has a right to complain or report illegalities.
Many netizens agreed that the law will be a “blessing” to many people once it was adopted, especially to low-income groups.
“Many migrant workers, laid off workers and unemployed people don’t have any insurance. I think government should increase investment and put them under the safety net to build a harmonious and stable society,” one netizen wrote.
But not all feedback was positive. Some people complained the draft was too general.
“Articles in the draft are too simple and authorize too much power to the local government,” Tan Zhongxiao from central Hunan Province wrote on the NPC website. “Social insurance law has a direct bearing on everyone. I think the law should be more specific so that there will be no problem when being implemented in the future.”
The draft will be further revised based on the public’s proposals before it is passed on to lawmakers for the third reading later this year, according to the Commission for Legislative Affairs.
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China is so big and diverse. Don’t know how it are going to implement such schemes. The devil is in the details.
In the Sg situation, I think anyone who works and made CPF contribution is already covered in some way through their Medisave. The garhmen should seriously do something for those unfortunates, who for some reasons or other is unable to work or do not have enough in their CPF for the healthcare schemes.
We also had a good safety net in our CPF scheme when it started. I think those in the 70s and 80s would agree.
But unfortunately our short sighted elites have priced our pigeon holes with prices are so ridiculous that now our CPF savings are sucked dry to pay for them and we are left with so little for retirement.
20/2/09
Time for us to fine tune our exising public policies and public institutions such as CPF,HDB, Government Hospitals and make Singapore a better place for all Singaporeans especially we are now severely hit by the Global Financial Crisis.
Perhaps, come the next General Election, we protest our votes and vote in as many Opposition MPs regardless they are Blue Chips, Top Guns, Quarter & One Eight Baked and even those Low Calibre into Parliament, and let us sit and watch how these latest MPs perform (like in Malaysia now)
Regards
Andrew Chuah
Perhaps, come the next General Election, we protest our votes and vote in as many Opposition MPs regardless they are Blue Chips, Top Guns, Quarter & One Eight Baked and even those Low Calibre into Parliament, and let us sit and watch how these latest MPs perform (like in Malaysia now) – Andrew Chuah (#3)
To quote LHL, the party is the fundamental unit of our political system. We vote candidates into parliament not because of his individual merit but because we want a particular party representation in parliament. Any argument on the quality of the Opposition candidates by you or PAP is simply a moot point.
20/2/09
Hi Smallvice585-We shall see in our Modern Singapore and we have already seen in Malaysia where low calibre and low moral people stood for last year 8th of March General Election, all exposed out and latest being the YB Elizabeth Wong.We had our own fair share in our Parliament where one of the Singapore MP resigned.
Regards
Andrew Chuah
Any argument from the present ruling party that there are hardly any talented party that can compete with them is just a complete bullshit as they are actually the incompetent ones that fears anyone that steps into their path so they start to inflict fears into the people that any change in the present govt will only leads to the fall of the nation, and thats plain rubbish. Try opening up a public debate between the PAP MPs against the present lot of political science students (not even to mention any other opposition parties) and you people will be able to witness just how competent they claimed themselves to be, sure it will turn out to be a damn laughing stocks that they will not be able to answer simple and direct questions thrown to them. All these present bunch of “yes man” ministers are just being placed there doing nothing except taking orders from the master in return to get those millions into their pockets.
“…..particularly when we have so much more wealth, a smaller population and a less corrupt bureaucracy than the Chinese?”
This is the kind of unfounded “accolade”, based on its insidious propaganda, that the PAP appreciates most, especially coming from blogs such as TOC that claims to be neutral.
Apart from the fact that we have a smaller population, the other comparisons with China really flies in the face.of reality in Singapore.
Its good to have proper safety net draft out that is specific in entitlement and managed by one department. So that the needy person no need to guest whether they will get the relief payment to sustain their life. Now we have so many hands such as comcare, cdc, ccc, mcys etc, they are confusing the people and the needy person don’t know which one to go. They become confusing hands and all have different sets of criteria for the needy to qualify. Frankly, I am confuse whats their roles were and where to find them.
If a safetynet is setup with clear-cut rules, qualification and entitlement, the people who run into trouble will have sense of security that they will be taken care of by such safetynet department.