Monthly Archives: July 2013
Tackling Obesity- Any role for Industry?
I wrote this a while back but only contributed it to the Straits Times earlier this week. It was published today with the headline “Food industry must shape up to curb obesity”. Guess I differ a little from many of my public health colleagues in believing that ‘real’ solutions to the public health challenges of […]
Reviewing ‘rules’ for liposuction… again!
Below is the full text of the brief interview I had with the Straits Times. I am to be honest not persuaded at this point in time that liposuction needs further tightening of rules. Ideally, it should be an honest assessment of risk versus benefit. But data are so sparse here. One death is a tragedy, no […]
Pre-funded MediShield: Good Idea?
I was quoted in the newspaper ‘Today’ (See bottom of post for the article) supporting the idea of the younger Singaporean paying higher premiums so that the elderly pay less than what they would have paid had their premiums been actuarially computed. However, I also warned that while this was politically positioned as pre-funding or […]
Aftermath of the Susan Lim Case: Thoughts on charging a “fair and reasonable fee”
“It is therefore clear, in our view, that every doctor is under an ethical obligation to charge a fair and reasonable fee for services rendered to his or her patient. The corollary of this is that overcharging would constitute an abuse of the trust and confidence placed by a patient in his or her doctor, […]
Insights Health Associates 
Today Newspaper: Pegging Hospital Prices to Inflation to curb demand
When the Today journalist called me last night, I was taken aback by his sharing about what Sean had said. I don’t know Sean well but in the few times we have interacted, I have found him to be a thoughtful commentator. Hence I was surprised at the suggestion to ‘peg’ prices to inflation. My […]