Daily Briefing: Singapore defends "boring" tourist spot status; Flying taxis for Singapore roads

And here's how to use your Medisave account.

From Reuters:

Singapore’s tourism agency has hit back at lifestyle magazine Time Out for ranking the wealthy city state among the world’s least exciting cities, by releasing a video that mockingly declares, “There is nothing exciting to do.”

The magazine’s City Life Index 2018, published this week, ranked Singapore 31st out of 32 cities, one spot above Istanbul, based on a survey of more than 15,000 people.

Chicago topped the index, followed by Porto in Portugal and New York City, scored on factors such as food, drink, culture, friendliness, affordability, happiness and liveability.

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From MoneySmart:

You usually can’t make a Medisave claim if you show up at a hospital for outpatient treatment (unless you’re suffering from some of the specific conditions or procedures that qualify for outpatient claims) but aren’t warded.

But if you are warded, you can claim up to $250 per day for daily public hospital charges. This sum includes up to $30 for doctor’s daily attendance fees. There is a cap of $5,000 a year. Anything in excess of these caps will have to be paid for out of pocket, or by your insurer if any.

Note that Medisave claims are meant to cover stays in Class B2 and C wards at public hospitals. If you’re in a Class B1 or Class A ward at a public hospital, or in a private hospital, you’ll have to pay the difference in cost.

Read more here.

From Forbes:

Traffic congestion is one of the most prevalent and frustrating characteristics associated with major cities. Despite being known as the "Garden City," Singapore has one of the highest road densities of developed nations with 4.8km of road for each square kilometre of land. Singapore also has one of the highest ratios of vehicles per kilometre of road at 232. This is significantly higher than Japan (63), France (39), the United Kingdom (77) and the United States (37).

Even though the country has put in place a range of incentives and constraints to limit the impact cars have on the city-state with a system of quotas, registration fees, and congestion charges, traffic congestion still remains a major concern. And as the city gears up, once again, to host the Singapore Airshow, Asia's largest aerospace and defence event on Feb 6 to 11, 2018, one area of interest bound to be on everyone's minds is urban mobility.

Airbus, a major participant of the air show every year, announced it is planning to feature its Urban Aerial Mobility (UAM) technology -- more commonly known as the flying taxi concept.

Read more here.