In insurance pool, young are risk-sharing with their future selves

In any insurance pool, such as Singapore's ElderShield, the presumption is that, simply by nature that the aged succumb to sickness more readily, the young who are low-cost consumers will subsidise the elderly (Proposed changes to ElderShield put strain on young adults, by Mr Nicholas Soh; Feb 2).

This is true for any given year, except that over the whole life cycle, the young are actually risk-pooling with their future, similarly decrepit, selves.

It makes good sense to buy medical insurance in a big national pool, where premiums are low, when the young are still disease-free and insurable.

Time does fly, and the invincibility of youth and the sense of indestructibility will evanesce, to be replaced with a sense of despair - if insurance protection was not sensibly participated in from a young age, leading to medical treatment foregone.

While it is true that our young have to struggle hard in the midst of global competition, previous generations also faced seemingly insurmountable trials and tribulations.

No generation has inalienable rights to a cushy lifestyle without it being earned, and no amount of captious cavilling against governments will commute this.

The Pioneer Generation Package is not an example of profligate governmental spending.

The recognition of the service and sacrifice that our forebears made to advance Singapore to its present stature is not dependent on how innovatively the pioneers made use of their opportunities.

It is churlish to begrudge honest success.

Yik Keng Yeong (Dr)

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 05, 2018, with the headline In insurance pool, young are risk-sharing with their future selves. Subscribe