Singapore has one of the world's lowest mortality rates, with a general life expectancy of above 80. A healthcare system that is ranked sixth in the world, combined with a stable economy, has brought longevity to its population. Singapore's women outlive men by about five years, making the country second in the world for how long its women live. In a cruel twist of fate, it seems the Singapore state has decided to punish women for it.
In 2018, Singapore introduced CareShield Life insurance, which, unlike actual insurance, is a compulsory program meant for all citizens. It is a government-run scheme that automatically signs up everyone aged 30 from the year 2020 and is meant to replace ElderShield, a program that provides optional private insurance. As part of this insurance policy, women are required to pay higher premiums as compared to men. They are expected to pay $47 SGD more per year than men as a consequence of living longer than them.
Dr Amy Khor, the Singapore Senior Minister of State for Health, said gender-differentiated premiums would 'more accurately reflect the differences in risks between men and women'. It is unclear what those risks might be. Women are already penalised in Singapore workplaces in terms of the gender pay gap and a motherhood tax. Furthermore, living longer in itself requires spending more money, time and effort. Hence, it seems as if Singaporean women are being doubly penalised, once for being women, and once again for daring to outlive their men.
For a country that is considered modern and cosmopolitan, Singapore has had a long history of policies aimed at controlling women's bodies and lives. In 1984, the state introduced the Graduate Mothers Scheme, which was aimed at inducing well-educated women to have more children, and women of working class backgrounds to stop having children — all in the belief that education corresponds to intelligence and future achievement. If this sounds like eugenics, that's because it is.
Academic Michael Barr of Flinders University, in his book The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Power and Influence, points out that while the policy seemingly targeted education, it was actually directed at race and class. The majority of highly educated women in Singapore were Chinese and the least educated were Malay women, meaning that these programs 'encouraged procreation among middle class, tertiary-educated (mostly Chinese) women, and sterilisation among low-income, poorly educated (mostly Malay) women'.
The policy was essentially