Our CPF savings being robbed

There are many CPF members who are unable to meet the minimum sum required when they reached 55. This means that the whole purpose of CPF scheme, which is force saving so that we can retire in peace has failed.  This is because over the years after CPF implementation, our govt has been coming out with all sort of schemes which dry up our CPF.

For example, a large chunk of CPF saving is used to pay for our govt build overprice HDB flats. The price has gone ups so much that they come up with more and more 'subsidy' schemes to 'ensure affordability'. As a lay person, we can see how ridiculous it is. When greed blinds the eyes, those implementing the schemes failed to see that they are the source of the problem. All they are interested in is in racking in more money.

Our healthcare cost  has also been rocketing. Though the govt provides 'subsidy', we the patients still bear the bulk of the cost. Their so call subsidy can never catch up the rocketing medical bill. Thus, the minimum sum required for CPF Medisave has been increasing yearly. Medisave is another force saving scheme to lock up our retirement money to meet healthcare needs.  But the rules are so strict, most of our medical cost are settle by cash instead.  Meantime, our Medisave account is being depleted by Medishield insurance premium.

Medishield is another white elephant scheme. Its deductible is so high that most of the time, we are using our own money (either cash or Medisave) to foot our bill. The worrying part is that its premium is elastic. Every once a while, our govt will use the excuse of 'enhancing' the scheme to increase the premium. The deductible will be increased at the same time. This ensures we are kept out of whatever 'enhancement' there is, since we never get to claim in the first place.

Both Medisave and Medishield are so flawed that the elderly medical needs are not meet. So CPF came up with more schemes to  con 'help' our seniors. Thus, we have the Eldershield. After sucking more money from our Medisave a/c, they annoucement it is insufficient coverage. So we have to 'top up' the premium to upgrade our Eldershield coverage. But they realised again the scheme needs more enhancement - next came Eldershield Care. After all the upgrade and enhancement, they recently acknowledged that the coverage is still insufficient. In order to qualify to claim for Eldershield - one has to be unable to do 3 normal daily activities. Being so severely handicap it is a wonder how the $300 to $800 per month under the various Eldershield schemes can help. There are so many white elephants which deplete our CPF without meeting our healthcare needs.

Now as the various CPF con schemes are getting so numerous and confusing, they decided revamp Medishield into Medishield Life.  This is a master stroke by the govt to lock up forever whatever money we have in CPF. They can con + rob us of more money at the same time by increasing the minimum sum in Medisave plus the premium in Medishield Life at the same time.

In Summary - these are the various ways the govt rob us till we have no money for retirement inspite of saving throughout our working life of around 4 decades:

1) CPF Ordinary Account almost suck dry by overprice HDB flat
2) Medisave depleted by high medical bill and continuous inflating Medishield premium. A sizable portion also eaten up by Eldershield and Eldershield Care. With Medishield Life - the final stoke to eat up our remaining savings in Medisave.
3) Normal medical expenses is by cash as we are unable to use Medisave most of the time
4) High hospitalisation bill is settle by cash or Medisave as unable to claim Medishield due to high deductible.